It was scary being Muslim in America in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, according to Imam Jawad Rasul of the Islamic Society of Augusta.
He was 13 years old and living in New York City when the attacks occurred. He watched the trade towers burn in the distance.
“I saw it with my own eyes, and I still remember the smell of the smoke that burned for almost a month,” Rasul said.
Rasul didn’t just watch the towers burn in the aftermath of 9/11. He learned some hard lessons about being Muslim in America as well.
MORE: 9/11 Retrospective: Effects of Sept. 11 Have Been Hard and Bitter
The times were scary for Muslims living in America in the months and years immediately after the attacks, according to Rasul. Simply wearing Muslim garb could open a person up to a random attack.
Rasul remembers being chased by a gang of older boys on the streets of New York.
“They chased me yelling that they were going to cut my throat. I hid in a barbershop, and the men there protected me,” Rasul said.
When President George W. Bush launched the War on Terror after 9/11, he made it clear that he was not waging war on Islam.
However, that does not mean that being a Muslim in America has been an easy ride over the past 20 years.
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According to a study published by the Journal of Muslim Mental Health in 2012, hate crimes against Muslims increased by 1,700 percent in the direct aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks; however, that number has decreased dramatically over the past two decades.
A recent report released by the Department of Justice finds that hate crimes against persons of a particular religion accounted for 13.4 percent of all hate crimes committed in 2020. That percentage includes hate crimes against persons of all religions, not just Islam. Considering that there are 3.45 million Muslims living in America, according to the Pew Research Center, the percentage of hate crimes against Muslims because of their religion is very low.
After the attacks, Rasul says the New York City police began acting like the CIA. They even placed spies within Quran learning schools. One of those spies turned in a dossier on Rasul when he was in college.
However, Rasul says the statistics that show that Islamophobia has abated greatly in America are a reflection of his experience.
“America has a history of being wary of particular ethnic groups, from the internment of the Japanese in World War II to the Red Scare during the Cold War. Now people are scared of the Chinese. I am, too,” Rasul said.
Statistics aside, real life stories show that immigrants from the Middle East are mostly treated well in America today, sometimes better than in their home countries where Sharia law prevails. Sharia law is religious law that governs many aspects of Islamic society.
Mustafa Gomma and his wife, Sandy Barsiq, are among those immigrants from Muslim countries who have flourished in America.
They were a young couple fresh out of dental school, living and practicing dentistry in Cairo, the capital of Egypt. They wanted to start a family, but then, in 2010, the Arab Spring swept through Egypt, toppling the government and placing the Muslim Brotherhood into power.
Gomma grew up in luxury. His father, Sharif, was an international building contractor who owned a large horse breeding farm on the outskirts of Cairo. The family spent weekends on the Red Sea enjoying the comforts of the family yacht.
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However, when the secular government fell, Gomma, Barsiq and others found they had targets on their backs. The ability to be able to dress nicely and drive a personal automobile meant they could easily stood out, which made it easy for them to become targets in a changing Egyptian society.
The couple had two choices: they could retreat to their family’s walled compound outside of Cairo and be guarded by arms and trained dogs, or they could immigrate to America.
The decision was made to immigrate, however, there was a problem. Gomma, whose mother is an American national, enjoyed dual citizenship, but his wife was Jordanian.
Getting Barsiq out legally was going to be a challenge.
Friends of the family in Augusta contacted (then) Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) for help and Broun obliged and aided the couple with the immigration process.
Upon arriving in Augusta to start their new life, the couple found that they had an even bigger problem in front of them than the immigration process: finding work?
The American Dental Association does not recognize licenses and dentistry degrees from Egypt. The young couple would have to requalify as dentists or find a different career path.
Again, friends jumped into action and helped the couple get jobs, but the jobs were not exactly what one would anticipate for well-educated professionals. The pair were offered jobs as servers at Buffalo Wild Wings.
Barsiq and Gomma went from lounging on the family yacht and being waited on hand and foot to waiting tables themselves in a foreign country.
“It was a culture shock. We both had to learn to sacrifice. It was worth it, though. It was all totally worth it,” Barsiq said.
The young couple persevered and they welcomed a child, Adam, shortly after arriving in the United States.
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Gomma eventually applied for a part-time position with the U.S. Postal Service, which, due to his hard work, became a full time job with government backed benefits. Barsiq pursued a career in real estate. Barsiq, who is now a fully naturalized U.S. citizen, works for Keystone Homes and says she is living the American dream.
“America is my country now. It’s amazing. I love it here. It is the perfect place to raise our child. I really just love it here,” Barsiq said.
According to Rasul, Barsiq and Gomma’s experience is typical for Muslims who immigrate to America.
“They come from societies with corrupt governments where hardly anyone can get ahead, and they come to America and learn that through hard work, they can live the American dream,” Rasul said.
Gomma says that he has faced some uncomfortable situations when people hear his Arabic name.
MORE: 9/11 Retrospective: People Sought Comfort in Their Faith In The Days Following the Attacks
“Sometimes people ask my name, and I tell them Mustafa, and I can see the look on their face change. But I always take it in stride and try to put them at ease that I am not some militant terrorist,” Gomma said.
According to Gomma, he has had people ask him about the myth that a suicidal jihadist martyr will recieve 72 virgin women as his reward in Heaven. Gomma’s response, he says, is to handle it in good humor by quoting “Achmed,” the dead terrorist dummy of ventriloquist Jeff Dunham, of whom he is a fan.
“I tell them, ‘Why would I blow myself up and die to then have to teach 72 virgins how to have sex with me?’” Gomma said. He says that is definitely not his idea of paradise.
Scott Hudson is the Senior Reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com.
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