Maryam Salem, a fifth grader at a private Islamic school in Bridgeview in September 2001, knew something was very, very wrong. A plane crashed in New York. Police surrounded the Universal School campus next to Maryam’s family’s mosque. Word got out that the hijackers who turned four airplanes into missiles were waging holy war in the name of Islam. People in big cars started driving around the Universal School honking and waving American flags. “Ignorant people,” Salem said. “There were Muslims who died that day. I had nothing to do with it. I was 10.” Salem was too young to...
