Posted on 09/02/2011 4:48:28 AM PDT by equaviator
For most Americans, that bright blue Tuesday morning marked a moment they will never forget.
That includes West Michigan residents like Ghazala Munir, a Muslim and native of Pakistan.
She remembers the nightmarish images of Sept. 11, 2001, smoke pouring from the World Trade Center’s twin towers, their collapse, the unimaginable death toll.
“I was at a doctor’s office and I thought they were playing some sort of horror movie,” she recalled. “It was horrifying.”
But as talk turned to the terrorists, she wondered how those of her faith would fare.
Then the interfaith activist got a call from a local rabbi, offering these words: “He said, ‘Anyone in the Muslim community, if you feel threatened or harassed, we are here to help you.’
“That was so heartening.”
Munir is mindful not all Americans have so been so supportive. A pastor in Florida burned a copy of the Koran. Others protested the proposed building of a mosque in New York City as desecration of Ground Zero. GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain said communities “have a right” to ban mosques.
But the Cascade Township resident is nothing if not an optimist.
“Wounds are still raw in some people’s hearts. I keeping hoping for the very best. I think that’s the only way to survive.”
So does Ali Metwalli, a native of Egypt and founding board member of the Islamic Mosque and Religious Institute of Grand Rapids.
But 10 years after 9/11, Metwalli still finds a lack of understanding of what he considers true Islam in certain corners of America. He is among an estimated 10,000 Muslims in the greater Grand Rapids area, a population that includes immigrants from the Middle East, Africa and beyond as well native-born believers and converts. They are among approximately 2.6 million U.S. Muslims.
“We still have ways to go. That is a fact,” said Metwalli, 70, a Cascade Township resident and professor of finance at Western Michigan University.
“There is a segment that regardless of what you do generalize and think that all Muslims can be lumped together. The majority of those I deal with are open-minded. But there some that are bad in every belief.
“It’s like if a Christian commits an act like (the 1995 bombing of) Oklahoma City. Don’t generalize as it relates to Muslims.”
He notes that his faith teaches him that to kill one person is to kill all of God’s creation. The claims of the terrorists to represent Islam are to him a fraud.
“If a Muslim is a Muslim by name only, I don’t consider them part of the faith. If you are a believer, you don’t do such an act.”
While he said he has been treated with respect for his faith, Metwalli said it is not always so with others in West Michigan.
“I know there are women who wear the head scarves and people say to them, ‘Why don’t you go home?’”
A recent survey by the Pew Research Center reported that 52 percent of Muslim Americans said their group is singled out by government for terrorist surveillance. It found that 43 percent said they had personally experienced harassment in the past year.
But in a nation built on Christian precepts, Metwalli believes it also falls to Muslims to broaden understanding of their faith.
To that end, the Islamic Mosque in Grand Rapids is hosting groups from area churches, public schools and colleges.
“It is our job to open ourselves to other communities. In Grand Rapids, we are trying to outreach to everybody. You do this with awareness, with knowledge.
“Islam is a religion of peace. It is not a religion of hatred.”
Kentwood resident and Bosnia native Sanel Fazlic was in German class at Aquinas College on 9/11. Disturbing memories of the 1990s Bosnian war flooded back.
“It took me back to all those painful years. I know exactly how it is losing someone. I lost nine members of my family,” said Fazlic, 31.
“Thousands of innocent people lost their lives.”
Fazlic feared Muslims in America would be singled out, just as they were in Bosnia, where more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims were killed in an act of genocide in Srebrenica in 1995.
“That’s what came into my mind. What’s going to happen now? Are we going to be targeted?”
In the days and weeks that followed, Fazlic overheard conversations among people who had no idea he is Muslim.
“I am white. I don’t look like a Muslim. They would be talking about how stupid radical Muslims should be put out of the country.”
Fazlic, 31, said he was just as offended as other Americans by what happened that day.
He came to West Michigan in 1996, graduated from Aquinas in 2005 and now owns his own business.
“This is my home. This is where my family is. I am an American citizen. There are lunatics in every culture,” he said.
Looking back at what happened in Bosnia, Fazlic said he does not consider those who killed his family as Christian.
“I would never say Christians did it. People did it,” he said.
“Only if you understand each other will you respect each other.”
Grand Valley State University student Mohammed Ghannam was in fourth grade on 9/11. The West Michigan native remembers his suburban Grand Rapids family gathering to watch the news and a caution from his parents.
“I remember them telling me to go the office if anybody tries any thing negative for me. They felt scared for me.”
As it turned out, Ghannam said, “Everything was fine."
Ghannam, 19, secretary of the GVSU Muslim Students Association, said he hears the “occasional snide remark” about Muslims. But he is heartened by the interest in and curiosity about Islam he hears from the wider community.
“If we work together can eliminate all this fear-mongering. I am an American. I love America. This is where I am going to be buried."
here we go
the “muslims as victim class” theme that is taking over our 9-11 remembrances
“West Michigan Muslims hope fear-mongering will end 10 years after Sept. 11 terrorism attacks”
Does this mean they hope muzzies will stop terrorizing us?
“A pastor in Florida burned a copy of the Koran.”
The horror.
That was my first thought. When you stop your dancing, we'll stop our fear-mongering.
It could be those numerous other terrorist attacks by Muslims that might hurt their cause.
“It’s like if a Christian commits an act like (the 1995 bombing of) Oklahoma City. Don’t generalize as it relates to Muslims.”
More bullshit from the muzzies and their supporters.
What Christian church did Timothy Mcveigh attend?
NONE.
He was an athiest and derided Christians from his death row prison cell.
I’ve been watching the Nat Geo specials this week. Just re-confirms my opinion of islam and the people who believe that crap. Would love to see the psuedo-religion banished from the world!
So why are there Islamic No-Go Zones all across Europe?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2771942/posts
And when Saudi Arabia and other muslim countries welcome Christians and Christian churches, I will welcome muslims and mosques.
Or perhaps they will all, every stinking one of the devil worshippers, return to their scummy countries. The problem as far as muslimes are concerned is that more and more people are waking up to their threat.
It's not a central tenet of Christianity to kill people who disagree, it is of Islam.
I don’t have any way to know what portion of islam is radical and dedicated to terrorism and murder. I can easily infer, however, that it is a large enough portion to scare the rest of them into silence.
Those who don't follow the official policy of Islam are in danger of being on the receiving end of those official policies themselves.
Islam is the enemy, its the advancing Satanic army that through threats of death and eventual saturation of all places of control will overwhelm the world.
Either a person opposes them no matter how sweet they appear or how honest they appear.
If a person has the Islamic infection they are a threat to everyone.
Radical islam is an insane murder cult, bent for 1,400 years on global domination under sharia law.
“Moderate” islam is their classic Trojan Horse for invading the West.
Sorry Ghazala, Achmed, Massoud, Abdul, and all the rest of you poor, suffering, much-maligned muslims. My sympathy tank ran dry on Sept 12, 2001. As much as you undoubtedly suffered at the hands of us intolerant American bigots, I suspect your misery pales beside that of the men and women who leapt from the Trade Center or burned to death in the Pentagon or were torn to shreds in Shanksville’s cratered field. And we haven’t even begun to talk about the torment their loved ones and the survivors have endured.
So pardon me if I don’t join in your boo-hoo bathos. I’m going to light a candle for 3,000 lives stolen 10 years ago by your ideological brethren, whose mayhem was shielded by your silence.
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