Amid tensions, Blair remains tolerant

At first, his words were inaudible—a low murmur with a friendly overtone. The junior who answered thought perhaps it was a long-distance call with poor reception and handed the phone to his mother. But then the words got clearer and the tone sharper. "Why did you do this to my country?” the stranger asked on Sept 12. "Why all this [expletive]?”

The Blair student and his family had done nothing wrong. They too were horrified by the terrorist attacks of the previous day. But because they were Muslim and, most likely, because their number was listed under the name ”Osama” in the phone book, they were singled out and accused of being part of an event that had been entirely out of their hands.

Since the terrorist attacks on Sept 11, violence against Muslims and Arabs in America has been prominent. The tensions brewing on the streets have shaken many Americans and have affected Blair students and their loved ones: a Blair teacher's brother, who, despite his roots in Afghanistan, was born and raised in America, was told by a stranger to "go back to your own country,” and a local mosque attended by friends of a Blair student was vandalized.

But inside the school, the mood has remained tolerant.

"The Blair community has been excellent,” says junior Mohamed Abutaleb, president of Blair's Muslim Students Association and a practicing Muslim. "The administration and students have been very respectful and understanding.”

Junior Melody Javid agrees. Initially, Javid's parents were worried by recent reports of racist violence, fearing that similar incidents would occur at Blair. But Javid, who is Iranian, says that she feels "totally safe at school.”

Senior Cyrus Hadadi, an Iranian Muslim, attributes Blair's tolerance to the ethnic diversity of the student body. "At Blair we can see people from all sorts of countries and backgrounds, which helps us understand each other better,” he explains. He adds that students learn to look past stereotypes when they get a chance to know Muslim students as individuals. "Not all Muslims are turban-wearing, camel-riding terrorists,” he says.

Idrees Mokhtarzada, a Muslim sophomore, thinks another reason for the understanding shown by Blair students is the teachers' efforts to squelch stereotypes. He says they have done an excellent job handling the situation and helping to combat ignorance within the Blair walls. "My NSL teacher spent a whole class period talking about Islam,” he says.

The fear that's near

In the time between the early dismissal on Sept 11 and the start of school two days later, Abutaleb wondered what to expect when he returned to Blair. He had already noticed a change in the way strangers regarded him. "It's not a comfortable situation to have to go outside and notice that all the glances are at you,” he says. Abutaleb was unsure whether the same hostility would confront him in school. "To be honest, I was worried,” he says. "Feelings undoubtedly were running high.”

Abutaleb had reason to fear. Since the plane crashes in New York and the nation's capital, many Americans have taken out feelings of aggression on mosques, Muslims and Middle Easterners.

The website of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) encourages reports of any anti-Muslim incidents. A week after the collapse of the Twin Towers, a total of 411 incidents had been reported. An additional 600 incidents probably went unreported to CAIR, according to council representative Omar Toor, for a total of about 1,000 anti-Muslim acts in a single week.

Muslims could sense the danger the tensions had produced. Mokhtarzada's Muslim friend in Virginia felt the need to hide her identity after Sept 11 in order to avoid confrontations. She normally wears hijab, the traditional head-covering for Muslim women, which would make her an easy-to-spot target for strangers itching to take out their anger on Muslims—a risk that she was not willing to take. "She wore a hat over it so that no one would see,” Mokhtarzada says.

Ishaq Osman, the user support specialist in the Media Center, says he "wouldn't have been surprised” had he experienced violence against him at Blair because he is Afghani. In fact, he was initially reluctant to reveal his ethnicity to Silver Chips simply because he did not want to deal with the possible repercussions.

But Osman feels strongly that fearing an attack against himself is counterproductive. "Fear feeds into hate,” Osman says, hate which he thinks would only help the terrorists reach their goal. By dividing the country and pitting Americans against each other, he says the terrorists can destroy the foundations of this country. "It's a great strategy,” Osman remarks, "and they're getting just what they wanted.”

The ties that bind

Although Osman says he is impressed with the acceptance within the Blair community, he still worries that the less informed will be less understanding. "There's always that percentage of people who don't read and don't understand,” he says.

What the terrorists did was "so anti-Islam,” Osman says. "It breaks, like, 1.2 million rules.”

After all, the Koran, the holy book of the Muslim religion, states: "Whosoever kills a human being for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if he has killed all mankind.” Since the terrorists were not acting in accordance with the Koran, Osman says they should not even be classified as Muslim.
Abutaleb only partially agrees. "The terrorist acts were quite contrary and against Islam,” he says. But he does not think it is fair to expel the terrorists from the Muslim religion. Says Abutaleb, "I will leave that decision to God.”

Muslims on screen

Unfortunately, Osman says, clarifying definitions is not all it takes to eliminate stereotypes of Muslims. He cites another factor affecting American's views on Muslims: the media.

Osman describes the television news shows—he calls them "propaganda machines”—as immediately following a picture of Osama bin Laden with a clip of Muslims praying. The problem, he says, is that some people take that to mean that all Muslims are affiliated with the terrorists.

Jennifer Officewala, a Muslim senior, is also bothered by the images of Arabs and Muslims on television. "They keep playing that same image,” she says, referring to the clip of Arabs dancing in the streets to celebrate the tragedy in the United States. "That's what everyone sees, that's what they hate and that's what they want to kill.”

Hadadi agrees that the media has in some ways kept people ignorant, but he also thinks that it has played a role in educating as well. Considering the air-time that newscasters and the president have devoted to promoting tolerance, Hadadi says, in this case, the media is not to blame for Americans' ignorance.

But the images on television are not necessarily representative of all Muslims in America. Officewala still worries that people will incorrectly link her to the Arabs celebrating on-screen. "I didn't enjoy watching the towers fall,” she declares. "I didn't have any parties. I don't support bin Laden.”

Many Muslims in America are just like Officewala and Osman: proud to be American. Both wore red, white and blue on National Pride Day. Officewala's father used to work for the American government. Osman is hoping to get a huge flag erected in the middle of his lawn. He asks, "How do you call someone like that a foreigner?”