Calm Urged as Muslims Face Threats

As they have more than once in recent years, many Arab Americans and Muslims are lowering their profiles and locking their doors as vigilantes seek revenge for Tuesday’s terrorist attacks.

Most of the incidents thus far have been limited to threatening phone calls, ethnic slurs and promises of mayhem sent via letters, notes and voice mail. In one case in Washington, D.C., a note wrapped around a brick was tossed through the window of an Islamic bookstore.

Some actions, however, have been even more menacing.

Police in Gary, Ind.--an hour south of downtown Chicago--said they were investigating reports that a man in a ski mask had fired numerous rounds from a rifle into a glass-encased booth at a gas station. Inside was Hassan Awdah, a U.S. citizen born in Yemen.

In suburban Chicago, more than 300 people, mostly teenagers, gathered late Wednesday and early Thursday in a rowdy pro-U.S. rally that made its way to a nearby Islamic center--and quickly took on the feel of an anti-Arab gathering.

About 20 police agencies sent units to the scene, and three people were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct.

“I’m proud to be American, and I hate Arabs and I always have,” said 19-year-old Colin Zaremba, who marched with the group in the suburb of Oak Lawn.

Leaders Nationwide Ask for Restraint

The incidents piled up Thursday, with Muslim schools from coast to coast closing their doors as a precaution.

There are 3.5 million Arab Americans. Leaders across the nation pleaded with Americans not to lump all Arabs with the extremists believed responsible for crashing planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

“Our nation must be mindful that there are thousands of Arab Americans who live in New York City who love their flag,” President Bush said Thursday.

His father--who made enemies as well as friends in the Arab world during the Persian Gulf War against Iraq--seconded that plea. “We’ve got to be tolerant,” former President Bush said. “We should be mindful that these were not the acts of all Muslims, who--like Christians and Jews--believe in a god of love and mercy. Rather, these were senseless murders, committed by religious extremists who kill out of hate.”

As leaders spoke, however, the Arab American Institute in Washington was being guarded by district police and private security after a series of threats, said the group’s president, James J. Zogby.

One of the threats was personal and was left on the answering machine, he said: “Jim, you towel-head, I’ll slit your throat and kill your kids.”

“The problem here is the assumption of collective guilt,” Zogby said, “the assumption that all Muslims or all Arabs condone [terrorism.]”

In San Francisco, the Minority Assistance Service, which helps Muslims with immigration matters, received a death threat Thursday, as well as crank calls.

“He said, ‘I am going to kill all of you,’ ” said Xequina Berber, a 48-year-old paralegal. Another caller “cursed Allah,” she said.

The day before, police said, someone threw a plastic bag, apparently containing pig’s blood, against the front door of the office. A man phoned just as the bag was tossed, saying: “Is this the Islamic community center?” Berber recalled. “There’s a package for [Osama] bin Laden in front of the building.”

Officials at the Garden Grove office of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee said they had received seven venomous calls since the attacks.

In one, a man, his voice shaking with rage, said any sympathy he once felt for Middle Easterners was gone. “I hope you all die and burn in hell,” he screamed.

The group’s regional director, Michel Shehadeh, said the calls have heightened the jitters already felt by his staff members--who clearly were aware of the chilling potential of racial hatred.

In 1985, the committee’s executive director, Alex Odeh, was killed by a bomb attached to the door of the office, which was then in Santa Ana.

No charges were filed in the case, although federal officials named former Jewish Defense League activist Robert Manning as the prime suspect. Manning, extradited from Israel in 1993, was convicted that year of complicity in a previous bombing death and was a suspect in others.

A ‘Double Jeopardy’ for Arab Community

The possibility that the group may become a target again “is on our minds every day,” said Shehadeh, adding that neighbors in the Garden Grove office building worry about the group’s proximity during times of tension.

“Every time one of these things happens, the Arab American community has to reaffirm its loyalty to the [United States] all over again,” said Shehadeh, 45. “We see it every time; the anger builds up and we get the threats.

“It’s double jeopardy,” Shehadeh continued. “We share all the emotions that other citizens have, but we can’t mourn and grieve normally because all these fingers are pointed at us.”

In Anaheim, the owner of an Arab coffeehouse said he too had endured harassment from misguided patriots waving American flags and hurling epithets.

“They called us bad names and yelled,” said Maher Abuhasan, 42, who has run Al Basha Coffee House on Brookhurst Avenue for five years. “We said we are Americans and we are more upset than you.”

On Tuesday afternoon, a man drove up with a video camera and started filming the coffee shop and the customers, Abuhasan said. The owner called the police but was told that the man was not breaking any laws.

Then another man drove up and started berating Abuhasan and his customers. He again called the police, but the man left before officers got there.

On Wednesday, two men in a large silver truck with American flags pinned to its sides drove around the neighborhood, which is dotted with Arab-owned businesses, yelling obscenities, Abuhasan and others said.

They came to a stop in front of Al Basha and the driver revved his engine, they said.

“I closed the store and left,” Abuhasan said. “I understand the situation. People are upset. It doesn’t mean all Americans are like that.”

By late Thursday, however, most Americans were expressing the desire for measured, even patient, justice--not vengeance against innocents.

“So far, so good,” said Shami Akram, a volunteer at the Islamic Center of Southern California. “We haven’t experienced any violent reaction, except some telephone calls. But we understand that. We understand some people are outraged. But we try to explain it was a group. The entire Arabic or Muslim community should not be held responsible for this.”

Times staff writers Duke Helfand, Erika Hayasaki and Daniel Yi contributed to this story.