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Coping With The Aftermath
By Dilshad D. Ali
25/09/2001
Nearly two weeks after the attacks on the World Trade Center, many Muslims still can't fully comprehend what happened. How do you internalize it? What should you think?
Nearly 50 Arab and Muslim students gathered last Friday night at New York University to explore such questions, but found no easy answers - only sadness for the attacks themselves, confusion and anger at the media blitzkrieg following the attacks and frustration with U.S. foreign policy.
Five days after the semester began, life for 48,000 students at New York University, located in Lower Manhattan, ground to a halt with September 11th's attacks. The school cancelled classes and six residence halls shut down within half an hour of the strikes, suddenly displacing thousands of students. The university resumed its normal schedule Friday and opened two dorms.
NYU has also sponsored a number of forums and counseling sessions and informal discussions to help students cope, and provide settings for open dialogues. Yet most students say it will take months to restore their sense of normalcy. And for Muslim NYU students, the issue of personal safety, coupled with other frustrations, has shattered their usually structured lives indefinitely.
Haroon Moghul, a senior majoring in Philosophy and Middle Eastern Studies and president of the Islamic Center of NYU, notes that Muslim students faced a difficult situation following the attacks.
"We wanted to show what Islam is really about," says Moghul. "But our problem was: Can we even come back to the city? Hate crimes, attacks, the safety of Muslim students, those were our worries."
University administration has worked closely with the Islamic Center and Arab Students United, another campus group, to show support and ensure Muslim students' safety.
"They're really trying very hard. The university remains a comfortable environment," Moghul says. But even though NYU has strongly condemned harassment against Muslims and Arabs, some Muslims report verbal abuse, dirty looks and a general feeling of uneasiness that will take a long time to wane.
Naureen Malik, who was five blocks away when the towers collapsed, says at first everyone was so shocked, that they didn't know what to think. But as car radios blared more information about "Moslem terrorists," she grew uneasy.
"People started to stare at me, because I wear a scarf," says Malik. "I felt like saying, 'It wasn't me!'"
Since then, Malik, a graduate student hasn't encountered outright abuse, "just people muttering nasty things under their breath at me. That's uncomfortable enough."
Graduate student Hana Siddiqi, who also wears hijab (head scarf), has been dorm-less since September 11th. Her residence hall, located a few blocks away from the World Trade Center, was immediately evacuated, forcing her to live in a hotel without access to her personal property. Siddiqi says her life has been irrevocably changed by the incident: "I'll be at the subway station, and I won't stand at the edge because I'm afraid someone will push me down."
"This has really affected me. And I can't keep quiet about how things are turning out," says Siddiqi. "The war is not just against Afghanistan. And sure Osama Bin Laden may be the person behind it. But when the Taliban asks to have a conference with the U.S., the U.S. says no. When they ask for proof, the U.S. says no. I know we're all hurting here, but this thirst for blood without stopping to really think, it's dangerous."
Other Muslims note that they have received a lot of support since the attacks. According to Moghul, Catholic and Jewish groups located in the same building as NYU's Islamic Center offered to keep an eye on the Center. Other campus groups have offered to escort Muslim students around campus.
"People look at me more out of concern then anything else," Moghul says. "It varies from student to student. There was one Hijabi girl who was harassed in Washington Square Park. It got to the point that she had to run away."
As initial safety concerns are addressed, NYU's Muslims have begun to focus more on unfolding events and what they can do. Students have grown more frustrated with the declaration of war and what they say is media tabloidization of the events, and more importantly, Islam in general.
"What happened was inexcusable. We all feel that, and we all ache for the victims and their families. I think we all understand the need for
justice," Moghul said at the Friday discussion. "But the story that's being presented [by the media] is ridiculously inconsistent. We are presuming that [the terrorists] are a Muslim group, and our whole discourse is affected by that."
Naser Jamal, a third-year resident at Mt. Sinai Cabrini Medical Center in Manhattan, says Muslims must demand proof for themselves and on behalf of the American public.
"I know this is a sad situation for everyone. But we need to see proof before we take pseudo-responsibility for this," says Jamal, who came 18 years ago to the U.S. from Afghanistan.
Jamal also feels that many Muslims are unnecessarily apologizing: "We shouldn't have to say we're sorry for something we as Muslims in America did not do. Islam doesn't condone this."
Many students say that although circumstantial evidence points to individuals who profess the Islamic faith, they haven't received enough proof.
"I believe justice should be delivered," says Daanish Alevi, a junior majoring in Philosophy and Middle Eastern Studies. "I understand the pain, I feel it too. But I don't know for sure if the people who perpetrated these attacks are Muslim. If so, then that's not Islam."
The real problem, notes Alevi, is the willingness of the American public to believe everything the media and government says. "[Americans], including all of us here, dwell in a politically inert society. We need to get up; we need to say stuff," he says. "We owe it to our countries to make some changes here - demand more coverage of the history leading up to these terrible attacks. We need the public to see how twisted U.S. foreign policy can be."
In Moghul's opinion, such changes can only come through continued dialogue and the creation of student coalitions. He proposes getting Muslim students from Columbia University, Hunter College and other colleges in New York to demand changes in media coverage and to dispense proper information about Islam and Middle Eastern history.
"There's a lot of people who really, really don't want Muslims to be harmed and believe they're part of this society," says Moghul. "Had this happened five years ago, it would have been a lot worse. It is nice to see how far we've come. [U.S. President George W.] Bush is going to a mosque. Sen. Joseph Lieberman [D-CT] is praying next to Muslims. It's a different America."
"I was at the 96th street Mosque Friday after it happened," says Moghul. "Five people converted after Jummah [collective Friday prayer]. A lot of people were completely stunned. They went in expecting the worse, and such a wonderful thing happened."
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