|
NY Arabs, Muslims feel backlash NEW YORK, Sept. 12 (UPI) -- In the aftermath of Tuesday's
devastating attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Muslim-
and Arab-American New Yorkers brace against a backlash from the American
public as federal investigations focus on terrorists like Osama bin Laden.
Two hijacked passenger jets crashed into the World Trade
Center Tuesday, triggering the Twin Towers' collapse as well as that of
a nearby 45-story building, and yet another building Wednesday. A third
plane crashed into the Pentagon while a fourth crashed in Pennsylvania,
60 miles east of Pittsburgh. Anti-Arab and anti-Muslim resentment was felt even on
the long lines of blood donors leading into hospitals in New York. A wave
of incidents involving obscenities, racial slurs, death threats and violence
against Americans of Arab and Muslim descent were reported all throughout
the city and country Tuesday and Wednesday. A Pakistani-American, a native of Brooklyn, was attacked
and hit across the face with a two-by-four in Manhattan Tuesday. Police
officers pulled his two attackers off him. He was hospitalized today after
suffering a concussion from the assault and later falling down the stairs.
Police officers stationed in New York's outer boroughs
where there are high concentrations of Arab- and Muslim-Americans were
on high alert. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, in a statement Tuesday, urged
city residents not to let their anger be directed toward any one group.
"A situation like this, a tragedy like this instills
lots of feelings of anger and hatred and I'd ask the people of this city
not to have those feelings right now or ever. ... Hatred, prejudice and
anger and irrational reaction to things is what caused this terrible tragedy
and people of the city of New York should act differently, should act
bravely, act in a tolerant way. We should show these people they can't
stop us." "We haven't received any threats against communities
here so far," said a New York police officer in the ethnic community
of Flushing, Queens, who did not wish to be named. Local Muslim-Americans condemned the attacks on no uncertain
terms. "We don't support whoever did this. Bad is bad,"
said Persian-American restauranteur Abdul Mosaver, manager of the Afghani
restaurant Kabul Kabab. "We don't know who were in the buildings.
Muslim, Chinese, Jewish, German -- everyone was in them. We're sad. We
hate this. Everybody is a human being." Muslim- and Arab-American leaders pleaded with the American
public to not take its anger out on their communities. "We urge our fellow citizens not to rush to judgment and point fingers at their Arab-American neighbors and colleagues who are suffering, like all Americans, from these despicable acts," said the Arab American Institute in a statement. "We have family and friends who worked in the World Trade Center and for the federal government. We mourn for those who lost their lives and those who were injured. We mourn, as well, for our country in this time of national trauma." |