Bilal Zuberi has felt a double threat since Sept. 11: the threat of terrorist attacks, and the threat of discrimination based on his appearance and religion. "I left home every day wondering if I will be meeting an INS or FBI agent waiting for me at my office," he says.
Mr. Zuberi, a Pakistani and a Muslim, has been studying in the US for seven years. After the Sept. 11 attacks, he felt he needed to increase understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims. In the end, Zuberi, along with fellow students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, produced a video documenting the experiences of Muslims in their community.
"It was a nice dialog, even within the Muslim community at MIT, to figure out 'Who are we, what are we, where do we fit in, and what do we need to do, within our own communities at MIT or outside, to deal with this new situation?' "
Zuberi also participated in discussions about Sept. 11. Many people, he says, were struggling to understand the animosity behind the Sept. 11 attacks. He heard the question "Why do they hate us?" again and again. And on a recent trip to visit his family in Karachi, he saw that Pakistanis, too, were struggling to understand. "I found people asking exactly the same question, 'Why do the Americans hate us?' " The war in Afghanistan, threats to topple Iraq, and the possibility of US military action in Pakistan surprised them. "They realized that [Pakistanis] could have been on the receiving end of this war."
Even their government's cooperation with Washington didn't buy them complete security, however. On June 14, a bomb outside the American Consulate in Karachi killed 10 Pakistanis. "Every day in my city in Karachi in Pakistan there's a bomb blast or something, people are dying. My brother could be there. We live blocks away from where the bombings happen. I am scared for their lives."
Zuberi sees both Americans and Pakistanis looking for the same things: security, stability, freedom. He now looks for opportunities to ask the questions that will promote those aims for both his friends in America and his family in Pakistan. "When I think of a war on terrorism, I think of a global movement, not just military but economic, social, and political as well, to root out activities that threaten the lives of peaceful men, women, and children."
– Timothy Rauschenberger, photo by Stuart S. Cox Jr.
