At approximately 6 a.m., terrorist attacks began taking place on American soil. By 8:30 a.m., I was awakened by the loud conversation my father and brother were having in our living room, but I refused to get up. Then I heard my father say something about the World Trade Center, and that?s when I hopped out of bed. “What happened? What?s going on?” I asked my brother as he stared at the news. He didn?t answer so I sat down and began watching too. All I could see was dust covering the skies of a New York City that looked as if a volcanic eruption had taken place. As the minutes passed on, I finally learned about the tragedy that took place.

Both my brother and I were born and raised in Queens and we loved the towers for their awesome height and beauty. It hurt my entire family to see these towers collapse. What hurt even more was that innocent lives were taken. Seeing people jumping from 80 stories up or higher made me feel as if my heart wanted to jump out of my throat. All day I imagined the planes smashing into the towers while we were on top of the World Trade Center just a couple of months back. I got on the phone and tried to call my fiance and brother-in-law in the city, but the phone lines were down. I called my brother in Fremont and told him of what happened. Throughout the conversation my hands were shaking. We were just a few people shell-shocked and saddened by this terrorist attack. More shock sank in when I learned the Pentagon was also struck, and more sorrow accumulated when we heard of the fourth plane that went down in Pennsylvania.

Ever since then, our lives have gotten harder. Tuesday?s tragic events have had psychological and emotional weight on my family and I, and the personal impacts have been felt as well. The sadness of the events has been overcome by fear and concern as the shock still remains. I never knew that an event 3000 miles away could project its horrors on myself or others I know.

A student of Indian descent was beaten up on the morning of Sept. 11. Two men in the Bay Area, who were friends to a companion of mine, were stabbed to death; also of Indian descent. A close friend of mine and former Sacramento State student, Hasib Rostami, received a note on his car windshield telling him to go back to his country. Another friend of mine, Zia Abdul, was told by his manager to take off work for a week because many customers were familiar with his religious beliefs and his nationality. My mechanic?s dog was shot and killed in West Sacramento. My fiance in New York told me of stories where taxi cab drivers had been killed, two sisters in Brooklyn were stabbed to death, two brothers were shot to death and three teenagers a few blocks from her house were killed. The list continues with mosques throughout the nation being vandalized and receiving a variety of threats. These are just a few incidents that have occurred to people close to me.

Ignorance and prejudice can be really scary. A Sac State graduate student born in Los Angeles, Khalid Arghastani, said, “I?ve never felt so much racism in my life. People look at Muslims as if they?re weird, with no heart. I don?t like what happened but there?s nothing I can do about it.” This bitter atmosphere also exists in our university. “I feel and sense the stares and anger when I go into the Union,” Abdul said.

What does the Muslim population in the United States have to do with the tragedies that took place? It seems as if anyone who resembling a Middle Easterner is vulnerable to harassment. Many incidents have taken place involving Indian people who are neither Middle Eastern or Islamic, as was the case with the Sept. 13 vandalism at the Sikh Temple in West Sacramento.

Students at Sac State as well as myself would like to go anywhere, especially to school, feeling safe and wanted. We do not want to feel as outsiders at our own schools. We were not outsiders before Sept. 11, why are we now? Hate, prejudice and false judgment have to stop. Ignorance must be replaced by knowledge.

“Our religion (Islam) does not preach or teach violence and terrorism. In no way does Islam approve [of] the killing of innocent civilians,” Quaid Mydel, a Muslim and Syrian former student said. An entire religion and people are not supposed to be judged on the basis of a few extremists who bend the name of Islam in their favor. Please understand there are good and bad people among every religion, nationality and culture. The Caucasian population is not judged based on the actions of a few, the Spanish population is not labeled on the actions of a few and this is true for many people. But why has the label of terrorist been placed upon Muslims in the eyes of many? Hopefully, with time, education, and open-mindedness, many people will not repeat the mistakes of history in America as has been done with the Japanese Americans, African Americans, and Indian Americans.

Khaled Dastagirzada is a journalism major. He can be reached at [email protected]