Area Muslims Fear Reprisals on Bombing

The San Gabriel Valley’s Islamic community is decrying the pall of suspicion they say has affected all Muslims in this country since the arrest of two World Trade Center bombing suspects.

Stereotypes depicting all Muslims as fanatics have sent chills through the community, which fears retaliatory violence and discrimination, some members said.

At a gathering in a Walnut mosque March 7, a rumor quickly passed from family to family that a Muslim couple and their child were killed in Pomona in retaliation for the bombing.

Police and coroner’s officials say no such killings occurred, but the horrific tale illustrated the anxiety in the community. No local incidents of violence against Muslims have been confirmed since Mohammed A. Salameh and Nidal Ayyad were arrested in connection with the Feb. 26 bombing.

“I heard (the rumor) from a family who was visiting the hospital. They heard talk about it there, that the whole family had been shot,” said Azma Khan, a Glendora resident who is active in the Walnut mosque.

“Quite a few people mentioned (the rumor), but no one knows where it originated,” Kahn said.

The area’s Muslim community, which is served by 10 Islamic centers stretching from Glendale to Claremont and numbers at least 2,000 families, broadly condemns the New York bombing. But local Muslims also deplore persistent media references to “Islamic fundamentalism” because they fear such allusions will worsen discrimination and hostility by those who misunderstand their culture and religious beliefs.

“Any time, seemingly, whenever a big incident or a small incident is committed in any part of the world by anyone named Mohammed, the whole Muslim community is blamed,” said Ahmad H. Sakr, managing director of the Islamic Education Center in Walnut and the author of several books about Islam.

“That crazy man in Texas who claims he is Jesus, are we going to blame all the Christians of the world for how he is acting, and all Christians should be intimidated, and doomed?” he asked, referring to David Koresh, whose sect is involved in a standoff with federal agents in Waco, Tex.

At a community safety meeting held by the Sheriff’s Department at the Walnut mosque Sunday, no one directly brought up the World Trade Center arrest, but Sakr said families spoke about it among themselves and raised the issue of discrimination with Sheriff’s Deputy Bob Alfred.

A boy of about 11 complained that his mother is often taunted for wearing the long clothing and veils of her faith.

“I told him: ‘They’re trying to get your goat. Just don’t do anything. The more you show it, the more they’ll say it,’ ” Alfred said.

As news of Salameh’s arrest spread, San Gabriel Valley Muslims said their community experienced a familiar realization: that a faith they say teaches peace, ethics and respect is being associated only with fanaticism.

A statement issued by the board of directors of the Islamic Center of Claremont called on “official agencies and the media to stop using the misleading terms like Fundamentalist Muslims or Islamic Fundamentalism in this situation.”

“The labels wrongly equate the practice of Islam with hostile actions,” the statement said.

Those sentiments were echoed in the community.

“They are concentrating on Muslims, Muslims, Muslims. I feel that the target is not that person himself, but Islam,” said Nagwa Haggag, a Muslim who lives in Diamond Bar and came to the United States from Egypt 23 years ago. “Really, that hurts a lot, because true Islam is very different from what we hear. Islam is peace and love.”

The resurgence of negative stereotypes comes at a time when many Muslims are gathering nightly to pray at local mosques in observance of the holy month of Ramadan--a time of intensified prayer, reflection and self-discipline realized through daily fasting.

“I tell people to read the Koran, not to read it and convert, but just to see what’s in it,” said Haggag, who worked in the computer industry for years before opening a clothing boutique in Walnut with another Muslim woman.

“There is one basic value: Religion means to civilize people, to have a better life for every human being,” she said. “Everybody now is doing something ugly and calling it Islam.”

Haggag said she also heard the rumor about the murdered family from another family who reportedly knew them.

“I am living in a nice neighborhood, but I am a Muslim in full covers. I don’t know what will happen when I walk out of my house, if somebody will kill me,” said Haggag, a mother of three. “Some ignorant people can commit a crime. Maybe I lose my children or my husband because people didn’t know what Islam is.”

Haggag added that people often stare with hostility at her veils and clothing.

“I don’t pay too much attention. I feel strong about myself. But I have another friend who is teased all the time, every time she goes to pick up her child at school, so that she is almost in tears.”

Sakr, whose son’s name is Jihad, said persistent stereotypes of Muslims as predominantly extreme infuriate him. Jihad, he pointed out, means “to exert an effort and work hard to produce a degree of excellency,” not the translation of “holy war” most often recounted in the media.

“The teachings of the Koran say, if someone kills, it is as if he has killed all human beings. And his finality is hell,” Sakr said. “Even if there is a war, God forbid, Muslims are to refrain from committing any act of violence against any civilian, woman, or child.”

Six million to 8 million Muslims live in the United States, Sakr said, and the overwhelming majority are peaceful contributors to society.

“We teach family values. We teach respect,” he said. “We are not terrorists.”