1 20 7 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Council on American-Islamic Relations Stories Description An account of the resource The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is a nonprofit, grassroots civil rights and advocacy group. Since its establishment in 1994, CAIR has worked to promote a positive image of Islam and Muslims in America. This small collection represents the memoirs of CAIR members and friends related to the events and aftermath of September 11. CAIR Story CAIR Story: Story It was just aother school day. Wake up at 6:30 and out the door by 7:30am. But instead of dropping off the kids at school and then heading back home, I was going to see my newborn nephew in the hospital who was born at 12:30am September 11, 2001. My sister-in-law was waiting for me and the baby was coming from the nursery. They had taken him to get a bath. As I waited to see this new addition to our family I glanced up and caught what I thought was a movie of a plane hitting a tall building. The sound was off so we didn't hear anything. After turning the sound up we realized it was the World Trade Center. We still thought it was a movie until the second plane hit. I completely forgot why I was there in the hospital. My nephew arrived in the room and instead of being happy to see him I was filled with fear and sadness. He was a healthy little boy brought into this world on a most unforgetable day. I had to leave him quiker than I had wanted to so I could go and retrieve my kids from their Islamic private school. My husband and I were concerned about backlash and security. My husband told me to be careful leaving the hospital and driving. I really didn't see the point for this was my city and my neighbors and Orlando was such an accepting place to be. I forget that wearing a head covering, though, makes me a target. My eyes darted down the corridor as I walked swiftly to my car. I suspected everyone would make a comment or look at me more than they ever had before. But, fortunately, my beautiful city that has been my family's home for 2 generations was more compassionate than ever. No one looked at me stranger than before; no one tried to swipe me off the road; no one seemed to even notice me anymore than they ever did. Turning into the parking lot of the school I noticed the Sherrif's office had made it there before me. I was relieved. I knew the students were safe but this added security made me feel better. My children were waiting for me but had no idea what had happened. They thought I was coming to pick them up early because someone died. They didin't realize that many people had died but it wasn't their newborn nephew. I assured them he was healthy and safe and that we were going home to be together as a family. The kids only saw a little bit of TV that day. My husband and I watched it all night. We cried. We mourned. We hurt. The next day school was closed so they could prepare any security plans. It reopened after 2 days. My husband was scared for me to go out in the community. I wasn't. This was my city and my neighbors and my friends. But I could see his pain and concern so I stayed home until the evening. The muslim community had called a town meeting to be held at the school gym. I knew I had to go. I am a volunteer to the heart and needed to help my community and nation anyway I could. My husband knew that, too. Many community members came to be together and find out what they could do to help those who had suffered. We made plans to have a blood drive. We made plans to have speakers ready for the media that would soon ascend on our school and masjid. We all agreed that this act of terrorism was horrible and we condemned it. We knew then our religion of peace was under fire. We were given tips on how to stay safe in the event of serious backlash. Women were urged to use common sense when going out and urged to not stay at home and be scared. They were urged to go out and do their shopping, take their kids to school, go to their friend's house for coffee. Whatever their normal routine was they could do with just a bit of common sense. Students were urged to continue to attend classes even though many young ladies wore a headcover. They were urged to contact their administrators. Unfortunately, this town meeting was picked up by some local radio talk show hosts and condemned as being a party and celebration. Those in attendance couldn't believe this rhetoric and knew it was far from a happy party. We all cried together and made plans to help. There was no cause for celebration as we saw our nation in pain. Our community received hundreds of emails, letters, and phone calls offering prayers, and help. Some offered their guard dogs and to take women who were scared to the grocery store and to be a body guard. No major vandalism was reported except for minor grafitti written across a door. My city, Orlando the Beautiful, proved to be the loving, accepting community that it always had been. I am a second generation Floridian of Irish descent. I converted to Islam 12 years ago. I am a woman who wears a hijab (headscarf) proudly and unwaveringly. My background is in education and my goal is to educate all to learn to not just tolerate those of other faiths but accept their choice and freedom to practice. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource cair5.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2003-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 24.95.250.65 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Council on American-Islamic Relations Stories Description An account of the resource The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is a nonprofit, grassroots civil rights and advocacy group. Since its establishment in 1994, CAIR has worked to promote a positive image of Islam and Muslims in America. This small collection represents the memoirs of CAIR members and friends related to the events and aftermath of September 11. CAIR Story CAIR Story: Story Here is my eyewitness account of the destruction of the WTC on 9/11. THis story was originally published in the Tnt Mirror newspaper in Trinidad and Tobago: World Trade Center catastrophe: Muslims under siege By Fiaz Shuayb (copyright 2001) New York, Sept.12 - A loud explosion interrupted my class in logic four stories up a City University of New York (CUNY) building, two blocks away from the World Trade Centers twin towers. It was around 9 am. The boom was followed minutes after by screaming sirens coming from all directions. It jolted our concentration on diagramming of logical arguments. I shrugged off the noisy disturbance, trying to stay focused on our professor. However, one curious Latino female student somehow sensed something awry and went outside into the corridor. She ran back into the classroom seconds later, shouting that school security had ordered evacuation of the entire seven-story building. Nevertheless, nothing prepared us for the scene outside. Hundreds of students milled into the universitys compound below gasping Oh my God! Oh My God! as we stared at the horrific scene of the 110-storey high World Trade Center engulfed in a raging inferno with huge gaping holes in the uppermost floors. Everyone stood in shocked disbelief at the fiery scenario. It was a strange experience I shared with many otherswe were looking at something simply too incredible to be true, or what we were witnessing was actually happening but somehow we were not really in front of it. My first bits of news of the incident came from students in contact with others by phone or by radios. Everyone was bewildered. Some thought it was a bomb explosion; others said a couple of planes had crashed into the buildings. Several students were scared and crying, many frantically trying to call home on their cellular phones. A Ghanaian student, a Christian, found me out in the crowd: This is what America gets for supporting Israel, he whispered. Didnt you hear what [Vice-President] Dick Cheney said last week on the media? (that) the Palestinians are deserving of the type of military response from Israel. I looked at him, my face expressionless, thinking to myself that I do not see how two wrongs make a rightregardless of who was responsible for this attack. I strained my ears at other comments being offered. One student groaned: Why did this have to happen? Why cant we learn to live in peace? The question was rhetorical. We have to return to prayer and to God, another said. We witnessed in horror as at least three bodies fell from one of the burning towers some 90 stories up! Just like in the movies, it seemed. We were not sure whether they had jumped or had fallen off dead. Female students screamed and pointed to the plunging bodies. It was a calmly, gruesome scene I will never forget, which sent chills down my spine. When college security finally signaled to evacuate the area, hundreds of students linked up with thousands of people already in the streets, forming a somber exodus out of lower Manhattan, the financial center of the world with its symbols of American economic might in smoldering ruins. It was a chaotic scene for transportation as taxis and buses were few and all subway train lines leading out of Manhattan to the other boroughs completely shut down. I joined tens of thousands of people on a trek to find the nearest route out of Manhattan, to be far away from the disaster area as possible. Poring over my subway map the nearest other subway stations appeared to be along Broadway Avenue. Most people seemed headed in that direction. Merely several hundred meters away from the horrific scene when suddenly we heard a terrific sound and felt a tremor, looking back to see one tower come crashing down in a stupendous cloud of dust and rubble. Just like in the movies, it seemedan action scene straight out of Independence Day when aliens blew up the Empire State building in New York. Pandemonium reigned for a few minutes as people ran literally for their lives on the sidewalks as well as in the middle of the road oblivious to oncoming traffic, speeding ambulances and police cars. My heart skipped some beats, my mouth parched, and my legs, which seemed to have a mind of its own, felt heavy and refused to run fast enough. This was real life imitating art. However, for the most part, people on the move never became a mob, or a stampede, or a frenetic crowd, which might have led to quite a few people being trampled to death under the thicket of such a crowd. I found that calmness amazing, remembering my own experience of the 1990 coup attempt in Port of Spain and how quickly segments of the Trini citizenry had converted into looting hordes, wreaking havoc to businesses. Perhaps New Yorkers were in denial; perhaps the reality had not struck home; perhaps it was just like in the movies, it seemed. Further along Broadway, commercial life of New York went on unfazed. Consumers were piled into restaurants, shopping, or standing in the streets looking toward the direction of thick, gray smoke billowing from where the famous World Trade Center used to be. For several miles along the street, all of the subway stations remained shut. Some people hanged around hoping it would reopen soon but most continued on to Grand Central Station, one of the main transit subway centers. It was the same situation there--no trains available--at least for commuters heading out to Brooklyn and Queens. I met a college colleague there, a part-time pilot, who told me he saw how it all happened. I was at Battery Park, Stuversant, when suddenly I heard the sound of an airplane and saw what looked liked a DC 10 plane flying very low; then I saw it smash into one of the World Trade Center building and burst into a huge ball of flame, he said. The crowd near me also saw the explosion and started running in that direction to get a closer view. The ground shook and many people were in tears. Then we saw another plane crashed into the other tower and, as we watched, we saw some 13 people falling off from the tower…it was incredible but my main concern now is how to get out of Manhattan. It was 11 am. After asking around it appeared the only and easiest route to Queens would be across the long Queensborough bridge and from there, hopefully some of the lines or buses would be running. It was a spectacle to see the march of so many people from so many different walks of life trudge along the long suspended bridge in stifling midday heat. If there were any anger, resentment, or hatred for any group identified with the perpetratorsguilt by association--they were muttered under the breath or were the last thing on peoples minds. People seemed preoccupied with the arduous task of getting home presumably, where it is safer. I reached home at 4pm, tired, hungry, with a splitting headache but grateful to Allah for bringing us home safely. As events unfolded during the rest of the day, and the biggest question on the nations mind is who did this or was behind it, fears quickly arose in the Muslim community about the strong possibility of vengeance against them out of anger, hatred, and prejudice. An early press release, a couple of hours after the tragedy, by the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a prominent Islamic advocacy, reported several threats already received by Muslims and advised the community to keep a low profile. These reports were confirmed by the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/12/nyregion/12RELA.html). The release condemned the attack in strong language and urged Muslims to identify with the pain and suffering of the nation by donating blood and other offers of assistance. In the first few days following the 1995 attack on the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma, Muslims reported more than 200 incidents of harassment, threats, and actual violence. The culprit then turned out to be Timothy McVeigh. Sensitive to negative stereotyping of Muslim groups, New York leaders moved swiftly to warn citizens and residents not to translate their understandable anger into vengeance against other minority groups based on religion or ethnicity as a scapegoat for the action of terrorists. The Governor of New York George Pataki urged people to respect the rights of each other and convert their anger into positive action in returning normalcy to life. Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani announced at a press briefing that the Muslim community was assured of extra protection and that anyone found trying to take the law into his hands would be arrested. As a precaution against possible reprisal attacks, the giant K-Mart pulled all guns and weapons from sale throughout its chain of stores nationwide. At the time of writing, a Muslim female was reportedly shot in Flushing, Queens, another stabbed, and several Islamic websites shut down due to hate e-mails. I watched the headline news on television and the Internet blare chilling headlines, such as It is undoubtedly the worst peacetime attack, ever, on a single nation, and the largest-scale terrorist attack in history spread through the world, to name a few. They were not exaggerating. I was there. This day changed the world forever. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource cair4.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2003-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 172.140.202.242 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Council on American-Islamic Relations Stories Description An account of the resource The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is a nonprofit, grassroots civil rights and advocacy group. Since its establishment in 1994, CAIR has worked to promote a positive image of Islam and Muslims in America. This small collection represents the memoirs of CAIR members and friends related to the events and aftermath of September 11. CAIR Story CAIR Story: Story Test Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource cair1.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2003-07-01 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 129.174.27.192 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Council on American-Islamic Relations Stories Description An account of the resource The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is a nonprofit, grassroots civil rights and advocacy group. Since its establishment in 1994, CAIR has worked to promote a positive image of Islam and Muslims in America. This small collection represents the memoirs of CAIR members and friends related to the events and aftermath of September 11. CAIR Story CAIR Story: Story I woke up that morning as every other, early, to catch the bus for the communte to my job in Downtown Seattle. I arrived at the office, everyone was hunched over their PC's online, radios and small televisions, What is going on? no one is working! I saw in horror and disbelief a news broadcast showing the World Trade Towers exploding and crumbling, how can this be? what is going on?. The correspondent on the broadcast frantically trying to get words out, trying to be consise but sounding panicked. It was true, and a horror to see....my first thought was "O'Allah, please don't let Islam suffer from this this". I had just converted to Islam a short 1 year before, and I was very afraid, and angry by this. How can this happen now, I do not see where this type of violence and horror is part of my religion. I believe that all that happens in this world, is by Allah's will, whether good or bad. This is one of our Faith. This horror was ment be at this time, only Allah knows why or what outcome will be. I was shaken to my bones, my stomach turned and I had butterflies as I realized that the beauty of Islam had just been tarnished and defaced by these extremists, that my security as a Muslim woman was now compromised because of this action, and how could they do this to us? I will not abandon my faith or trust that Allah will reveil His purpose someday. I could only think and contemplate this, and pray for all Muslims and believers in the divine power of God, that we will continue to strive for beauty and perfection in Islam. All the way home on the bus I looked straight ahead, feeling the stares of other passengers, knowling that they had questions for me that were unable to be expressed. I could only answer them with somber expression. I am a Muslim, by choice! Alhamdulillah, Subhanillah, Allah Akbar Sister Kireesah Seattle, WA USA Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource cair8.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2003-09-12 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 63.225.181.94 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Council on American-Islamic Relations Stories Description An account of the resource The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is a nonprofit, grassroots civil rights and advocacy group. Since its establishment in 1994, CAIR has worked to promote a positive image of Islam and Muslims in America. This small collection represents the memoirs of CAIR members and friends related to the events and aftermath of September 11. CAIR Story CAIR Story: Story Test Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource cair2.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2003-07-01 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 129.174.27.192 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Council on American-Islamic Relations Stories Description An account of the resource The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is a nonprofit, grassroots civil rights and advocacy group. Since its establishment in 1994, CAIR has worked to promote a positive image of Islam and Muslims in America. This small collection represents the memoirs of CAIR members and friends related to the events and aftermath of September 11. CAIR Story CAIR Story: Story My story isn't very exciting. I had that day off work thanks to a last-minute rescheduling. Woke up briefly for fajr but went right back to bed then woke up for good around 8:00 a.m. Pacific time and went online while eating breakfast. Usually I like to check the news first but I happened to go to a discussion forum first only to see a thread called something like "omg!!!!!!!! two planes flew into the world trade center!!!!!!!!". I couldn't believe it was true, but I went to Yahoo news and confirmed it. I was just in shock, it didn't seem real that something like that could have happened, it was like a movie or something. I called my mom and ended up being the one to break the news to her; she had just woken up herself. I offered a salat and made du'a for some time then spent some time listening to the radio but then I decided I couldn't be alone all day so I went over to spend the day with my mom. It was so awful wondering if Muslims were behind it and listening to all these so-called experts on the radio and TV going on about Bin Laden and how supposedly only Muslims are suicide bombers. Later in the day I had a job interview that had been previously scheduled. I was pretty nervous but I wore hijab like usual. My mom took me over so I didn't have to go alone. Al-hamdulillah nothing bad happened, but I figure that must have been about the worst day of the year for a hijabi Muslimah to try and get a job! Needless to say, I didn't get that job. A funny thing was that about a week or so before that, a Muslim brother that took the same bus as me had given me a videotape of "Ar-Risala"/"The Message" (the story of the Prophet Muhammad) in Arabic (the brother is Syrian), but I hadn't gotten around to watching it. So I watched it at my parents' house after coming back from the job interview. When my dad came home from work he joked that this wasn't a safe time to be watching Arabic movies. But my parents were pretty cool about it and even asked some questions what the Prophet's (sAas) story was about. The next day I went back to work. My mom suggested that I shouldn't wear hijab and jilbab but I told her I would keep doing it unless I actually felt in danger. She accepted that; it wasn't that she actually wanted me to take them off, she was just worried for my safety. At the bus stop, brother Hamza and I talked about how we couldn't believe that anybody who called himself a Muslim could do something like that. We hoped it wasn't really Muslims. At work, my co-workers showed a lot of support for me. My supervisor said that if I ever couldn't come in to work because of danger to me, that was OK and we'd work it out later. A lady who works part-time called the office just to make sure I was OK. I was really touched by all their support. I also felt like maybe I had done a kind of da'wah in a way to show them that Muslims aren't alien or "weird": Muslims are ordinary nice people like their co-worker. On the bus ride home that afternoon, people were talking a lot about the whole thing. There was a conversation on the bus, one guy was saying hateful things about Islam but this other guy said not to believe everything in the media and to listen to Bin Laden's side before judging him. I was nervous that somebody would say something to me, but they didn't and I got off the bus right after that. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource cair3.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. anonymously Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2003-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 67.75.205.157 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Council on American-Islamic Relations Stories Description An account of the resource The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is a nonprofit, grassroots civil rights and advocacy group. Since its establishment in 1994, CAIR has worked to promote a positive image of Islam and Muslims in America. This small collection represents the memoirs of CAIR members and friends related to the events and aftermath of September 11. CAIR Story CAIR Story: Story I first heard the news at work when a colleague of mine screamed when she heard the news on radio. I was praying it would not be too devastating and that it should not be Muslim terrorists. I was disappointed on both counts. Later that day, my wife and I were at the local supermarket store checking out our stuff when the cashier passed a sly remark at her. She was wearing the Muslim head scarf. He asked me,"is she a terrorist?". I thought he was joking because my wife is short and looks pretty harmless. So I replied,"no, she isn't." I then picked up our carton of ice cream and told him,"look she eats ice cream, she can't be a terrorist". To my disappointment, I found he was serious about his comment and he replied,"I still think she is a terrorist". I wanted to complain to the manager of the store but I didn't. The cashier was a senior citizen. I figured if he hadn't learnt to respect other races and faiths in his 50 or 60 years of life, he is not going to learn today. He did manage to hurt our feelings. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource cair6.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. anonymously Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2003-09-12 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 156.63.42.10