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9/11/11, Opinion Editorial, The San Francisco Chronicle
Muslims For Life Blood Drive To Mark 9/11
By: Saad Karamat
As a 12-year-old, I vividly remember the horrific images of the twin towers being struck down. Little did I know that what unfolded on the television screen of my seventh-grade history class on Sept. 11, 2001, would greatly influence my life.
Having grown up with classmates in ethnically diverse Cupertino as a Muslim, I felt privileged not to have to deal with much discrimination.
But that changed when my family moved to Southern California for me to start high school. There, the population was not diverse. Besides the color of my skin, I was also different because I was the only practicing Muslim in my graduating class. I was now a stranger from every angle.
For the first time, I could feel my peers whispering "terrorist" behind my back. The only thing they knew about Islam - besides me - was what they had seen or heard about in the media or through their parents, whose views also were influenced by the media. Nonetheless, the students got to know me with time. They came to see that I was an exception to what they had seen in the media.
As Muslims, if we don't speak for ourselves, others will continue to do all the speaking for us. Like the students at my high school, millions will have an incorrect impression of Islam - a religion that espouses life, not death, and declares, "Saving one life is akin to saving all of humanity" (Quran 5:33).
Fears of Islam need to be dispelled through grassroots efforts.
One such effort is the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA's nationwide Muslims for Life ( www.muslimsforlife.org) campaign. Youths like myself are arranging blood drives to honor the lives of the nearly 3,000 killed on 9/11 by collecting 10,000 bags of blood on Sept. 11 - today. Instead of taking people's lives, we want to show that Islam teaches us to honor the sanctity of human life.
Today, as much as on Sept. 11, 2001, in my seventh-grade history class, the terrorists under the banner of Islam do not speak for me.
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