Terrorist attacks leave scar on the Arab community

Alicia Lopez

Since this month’s terrorist attacks, Middle Easterners in communities

throughout the country have reported incidents of verbal harassment,

physical assault and even suspected murders.

It’s been so bad that President Bush on Wednesday met with Muslim and

Sikh leaders to discuss the bigotry they have experienced since the World

Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked on Sept. 11.

But leaders in the Islamic community around Huntington Beach say such

occurrences have not been the norm here.

In fact, Muslims in Huntington Beach, as well as those throughout

Orange County, have been receiving positive and encouraging calls and

letters from leaders of all faiths, said Haitham Bundakji, who friends

call Danny. He is the president of the American Jordanian Assn. of

Southern California, chairman of the Public Relations Department of the

Islamic Society of Orange County and chaplain for the Garden Grove Police

Department.

Among those calls, Bundakji said, was one to the Islamic Society’s

mosque in Garden Grove from a man in Huntington Beach who said, “I’m a

Christian, but I’m an American.”

The man offered to help out at the Mosque, Bundakji said.

Bundakji, 53, did have a moment of fear when he returned home to find

two envelopes slipped under his door.

“I was very concerned,” he said. “Then I slowly opened the letters to

find them to be so beautiful. One was a short letter and the other a

card. Both expressed sympathy and trust and concern for my family and the

community.”

Nadia Chohan, 18, is president of the youth group at the Islamic

Society. She said most of the teenagers she’s talked to from Huntington

Beach and nearby cities have some concerns, but have not experienced many

problems.

“Some people have gotten looks, but you have to deal with it,” she

said. “You’re always running into ignorant people. Everyone understands

that. Certain kids aren’t as informed as others.”

On the Saturday after the attacks, Nadia was shopping on Main Street

in Huntington Beach and found the people especially nice.

“A guy was eating his ice cream and he looked up and said, ‘Hi, how

are you guys.’ I didn’t know if he was being extra nice, or if he said

that because that’s just the way it is down there,” she said.

She knew of only one small incident that she said was so petty it

became laughable.

She said she was getting in her car after shopping at American Vintage

when a man said: “First they bomb our country, then they drive around in

nice cars.”

“I was laughing at him because it was such a dumb comment,” Chohan

said. “I didn’t want to respond. I just thought it was funny that he said

something so stupid. Everyone just looked at him like he was stupid. He

looked at a guy nearby as if to say, “right?” and the guy just looked at

him like, ‘whatever.”’

Isolated incidents

Huntington Beach has not been without incident, however.

In one case, an elderly couple said they were confronted by a man who

threatened to kill them while they were out for a walk Sunday morning.

Steven McManus, 43, was arrested on suspicion of criminal threats and

a hate crime after he allegedly started yelling at the couple, 77 and 74.

They said he demanded to know where they were from and when they told

him they were from Iran he told them to go across the street or he would

kill them.

Police have arrested Steven James McManus, 43. He was charged with

criminal threats, hate crimes and resisting arrest.

In another, four Huntington Beach residents who are students at Orange

Coast College in Costa Mesa said a professor at the school called them

all terrorists.

Political science assistant professor Kenneth Hearlson has been put on

paid administrative leave following the incident, which school officials

are investigating.

CC Abdelmuti, 20, Mooath Saidi, 18, Zayneb Saidi, 20 and Ramsey

Nashef, 18, said they were sitting together in Hearlson’s class on Sept.

18 when he began talking about the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade

Center and the Pentagon.

Mooath Saidi said one student on the other end of the class from them

was outraged.

“He said, ‘Do you know what you said to him? You said he crashed those

planes into the World Trade Center. I think you need to rephrase your

statement’,” Mooath Saidi said.

The professor responded, “I acknowledge what I said,” Mooath Saidi

said.

Lisa Addeo, 19, and Caryn Huset, 21, said they were in the class and

that Hearlson apologized after making the statements and said he wasn’t

referring to the Muslim students in the class, but the terrorist who

committed the acts.

The Muslim students took their concerns to the administration Sept.

20. They met with Bob Dees, the vice president of instruction; Kate

Mueller, the dean of student services; and Jess Craig, the vice president

of student services.

They have asked that Hearlson be fired.

Hearlson, who has taught at the school since 1980, refused to comment.

Defending Hearlson, Addeo said she was shocked by the Muslim students’

allegations.

“He never once said that those students were terrorists, he was

talking about the real ones on the plane,” she said.

Addeo said she felt that what Hearlson was teaching was factual, and

Huset said Hearlson gave everyone in the class a fair chance to speak.

Jim Carnett, a spokesman for OCC, said after the meeting with the

students and talking to Hearlson, the professor was placed on paid

administrative leave and another instructor will take his place.

The administration has decided to turn the matter over to an outside

agency for review to maintain complete impartiality.

That person will talk to students, teaching assistants who were at the

lecture and Hearlson. The review will be turned in to the college and

administrators will decide then what do to.”Our first concern is for the

students and we want them to feel comfortable,” Carnett said.

Condemning killing

Bundakji’s response to people who blame the Islamic religion or

Muslims in general for the attacks, which has left more than 6,000 people

missing or dead, is similar to many Muslims. He said violence is not in

the teachings of the Koran.

“We are unlike different religions who have several versions of their

holy books,” he said. “I cannot understand where people get the idea that

it condones terrorism. The Koran is very clear about that. The Koran

condemns killing.”

He said the attacks have been a double tragedy for Arabs and Muslims.

“We had nothing to do with this,” he explained. “When McVeigh bombed

the Oklahoma building no one said Christians did this and when a Jewish

person goes to a Mosque in Hebron and kills people while they are

worshiping, people don’t say the Jewish did this. They say it was a crazy

person,” Bundakji said. “Their success is in destroying our unity. I hope

that it will not kill our hearts and compassion for one another.”