After the April 15 Boston Marathon bombings, Long Island Muslim-Americans prayed that the suspects would not end up being fellow Muslims. A wave of fear swept through the community after the attackers turned out to be of Islamic faith. Reporter Rashed Mian from the Long Island Press reached out to Muslim leaders to guage the community’s reaction following the attacks. In a lengthy article, Mian says the feelings of Talat Hamdani, the mother of police cadet Salman Hamdani who lost his life on 9\/11, reflects the general sentiment.<\/p>\n
Her fears, she says, were shared by others in Long Island’s Muslim community. Most likely they were shared throughout Muslim communities across the country. And they are justified. Since 9\/11, countless law-abiding, peace-loving, family oriented Muslim Americans have been targeted, physically and verbally assaulted, spied on by law enforcement agencies sworn to protect all citizens, stereotyped as anti-Americans and even branded as terrorists. Islam itself, a centuries-old religion founded upon the universal principles of peace and love, say Muslim leaders, has become demonized due to its bastardization by those who commit the horrifying atrocities, such as the recent bombings in Boston, in its name.<\/p>\n
Hamdani knows this all too well. A 61-year-old mother of two from Pakistan, she can relate to the extreme anguish and sorrow gripping the latest victims of Islamic extremists.<\/p>\n
Mian gets identical answers when he asks community leaders about the stereotyping of Muslims and their faith due to the actions of a few individuals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you place a couple of dirty drops inside the ocean, it’s still the ocean,\u201d says Sister Sanaa Nadim, chaplain of Stony Brook University’s [SBU] Muslim Student Association [MSA], a support group that focuses on educational and spiritual understanding among its members, on-campus and outside communities. \u201cHow can we say all the ocean is ugly? Meanwhile, fish comes out of it, life comes out of it, so many amazing things.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s the ocean of the Muslim community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many of the Muslim leaders Mian interviews trace back the causes of \u201cIslamophobia\u201d and the challenges they face in working to overcome widespread misunderstandings about Muslims and Islam.<\/p>\n
The fight to dispel misconceptions gets harder with every attack and foiled plot. Making matters worse, two Long Islanders became radicalized in America and latched onto foreign terrorist groups. One of those men was an al-Qaeda propagandist from Westbury, killed by a drone missile in 2011, who was the editor of Inspire, an English-language al-Qaeda magazine, which the two alleged Boston bombers, 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnev and 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnev, both Muslims, reportedly read.<\/p>\n
Dr. Faroque Khan, the former chief of medicine for Nassau County University Medical Center and unofficial spokesman for the Muslim community in Nassau, understands the challenges Muslims face in removing such misconceptions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can understand where people are coming from,\u201d Khan says calmly. \u201cSadly, the first major exposure for Americans to a Muslim was 9\/11, and that was a terrible introduction.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are people who are claiming to act in the name of Islam, and they’re committing certain actions that most Muslims irrevocably hate and detest and completely condemn,\u201d says Zain Ali, an Italian-Pakistani senior at SBU studying Spanish and bio chemistry, who also serves as president of the school’s MSA. \u201cWhat the community needs to do, rather than be reactive, is be proactive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mian also refers to the NYPD’s surveillance of Muslims, which exposed no \u201csmoking guns\u201d within the community. He says that despite their anger and frustrations with the actions of a few individuals within their ranks and the stereotyping after such incidents, Muslims on Long Island like Sanaa Nadim are proud Americans and optimistic about their future.<\/p>\n
The hope for a brighter future \u201cis America,\u201d she says. \u201cThe hope is the Constitution. The hope that every person has an inalienable right to live in peace and harmony as long as they’re law-abiding citizens. That’s the hope. And that’s what makes this country a better place than any other place.\u201d<\/p>\n
For her part, Hamdani also has never lost her faith in America despite facing numerous challenges since 9\/11.<\/p>\n
Standing proudly in front of her home, an American flag waving behind her, Hamdani is reminded about the love her son had for his country, a love so intense he laid down his life to save the lives of complete strangers.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody in this world would not want to become an American!\u201d she exclaims. \u201cIn spite of what’s happening in the political world, I’m proud to be an American, too.\u201d<\/p>\n