http://www.rsee.com/newsite/news/ Latest News September 11th, 2001 was a day that changed life for every American, especially for Muslim Americans. “Our society changed. Now if an Arab or Middle Easterner goes to the airport, they will get extra security,” said Omar Bashir, president of the Muslim Student Association (MSA) at Cal State University, San Bernardino. According to Bashir, who like many worships at the Islamic Center in Riverside (where services are conducted in both Arabic and English), many Riverside County Muslims were subjected to racial harassment after 9-11. But, he says that the post-9-11 political climate has galvanized the Arab and Muslim American communities to become more politically active. “9-11 has made our membership more cautious and presented them with new realities and some challenges,” said Dr. Mustafa K. Kuko, director of the Islamic Society of Riverside. “However, their normal life routine remained unchanged and natural. I could say 9-11 presented us with an opportunity to cement our relations with other segments of the Riverside community.” He praised Riverside mayor Dr. Ron Leveridge for showing great leadership skills in maintaining peaceful relations between various ethnic and religious groups in the city. Kuko, who is a native of Sudan, comes from a Muslim family that migrated from Mecca, Saudi Arabia to Sudan five centuries ago. He came to the United States in 1975 and has previously worked as a consultant for the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Higher Education. He also has a doctorate from the University of California, Riverside. As executive director of the Islamic Center, Kuko has many duties, including administrative work and social activities to attend to such as marriages, divorces, funerals, family counseling and outreach programs. According to him, there are about 15,000 Muslims in Riverside. “The majority are from the Middle East and Southeast Asia, India and Pakistan, a few African Americans, Caucasians, Europeans and Latinos,” he said. “There are some socio-political differences among the different factions of our communities, however they are minor and have very little bearing on internal relations.” Kuko said that although there are cultural differences in America, it is not difficult to be a Muslim here. “The degree of freedom we enjoy here makes religious practices in general easy,” he said. “The environment is definitely non-Islamic, yet there is not interference in our activities. However, there are [a] few inconveniences here and there, for instance, sometimes it is kind of hard to pray at the place of work.” Despite these challenges, many Muslims strive to observe the traditions and rules prescribed by their faith. As a Muslim, Bashir practices fasting during the month of Ramadan and also tries to pray five times a day. He said that fasting gives Muslims a greater appreciation of the hardships that people who do not have food or water have to go through. Bashir is a sophomore majoring in biology, and plans to become a doctor in the future. He is the son of Palestinian immigrants, and his father, who has a master’s degree, owns and operates a market. Bashir said that his parents came to America to seek better opportunities and provide a decent education for their children, like many other immigrants. He recalls the day of 9-11 vividly. “I was a freshman in Catholic school,” he said. “I was in ethics class and our teachers showed the news. As soon as 9-11 happened, someone said ‘It was your people, Muslims.” Bashir emphasized that the people who carried out the 9-11 attacks were not Muslims. “It was not Muslims, it was extremist Muslims,” he said. “Islam does not teach violence.” After 9-11, Bashir said he heard many comments from his classmates using ethnic slurs such as “towel heads.” However, the school administration was quick to try and nip any potential hate crimes in the bud. “The principal gathered the whole school [together] and lectured us about what Islam was about,” he said. He added that the school threatened to expel any student found guilty of harassing Muslims. Racial harassment has also affected Bashir’s family. There were picketers outside of his father’s business following September 11th. Bashir also said that one of the female members of the MSA at Cal State San Bernardino had an incident where a woman refused to get on an elevator with her because she was wearing a scarf. Other local Muslims had their houses egged and their tires slashed. According to Bashir, passing through customs has become a nightmarish experience for Arab Americans. Both Bashir and his father have been subjected to increased security just because of their names. “It happened to my father this summer,” he said. “They (immigration) took him to a different room and interrogated him.” The racial harassment and extra security from airport officials has become so bad that some Arab Americans have decided to leave America all together, he said. “One of my friends moved back to Egypt,” Bashir said. Even when reports are filed about these hate crimes, Bashir said that the suspects are never turned in. He said that after 9-11, there initially was an increased police presence at mosques, but interest died down after a while. However, Bashir noticed that after 9-11 there has been an increased interest in Islam. “The population went up dramatically after 9-11,” he said. “More Muslims are running for political office. Muslims are now coming out and showing their faith.” Bashir believes that many Muslims are motivated to improve the current situation so that their children will not have to suffer the same harassment. He said that it is important for Americans to educate themselves further about Islam, which he feels is being misrepresented in the media. “They watch the news and they just see Muslims as terrorists,” he said. Bashir educates himself by watching news from non-American news sources, such as Al-Jazeera and the BBC. “Life goes on, you open up a new chapter every day,” said Bashir, when asked how his family copes with the post 9-11 climate. “All we (Muslims) can do is protest. [Living in] America is not a life of freedom.”