USA: Milwaukee Muslims Still Feel Backlash

"When I went to work, some of my friends were questioning me and said, 'Why would you guys do that?' And I would look at them and say, 'Do you think I would do something like that?'"

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: WISN | CBS 2
By WISN | September 10, 2010

Saturday Marks Nine Years Since 9/11 Attack

MILWAUKEE -- In the ninth year after 9/11, Muhammad Sabir, a Muslim leader in Milwaukee, says the backlash against his religion is not getting any better.

Sabir chose Islam 40 years ago to guide him spiritually, after being raised by a Southern Baptist mother and a father who he says observed.

"He was one of those people who watched your actions. How you act is what you are," Sabir said.

Now, he is the spokesman for the Ahmmadiyya Muslim Community, which worships at a mosque on Milwaukee's northwest side.

Friday marks the end the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. It is also the dawn of the day, nine years ago, that 19 men high-jacked four airplanes in the name of Islam.

"Out of their ignorance, those people that flew those planes listened to some people who were fanatics, who convinced them to so something hideous," Sabir said.

He points out that Muslim Americans like himself also died that day, unable to escape the burning towers. He understands why non-Muslims question Islam because it came from his own family and friends.

"When I went to work, some of my friends were questioning me and said, 'Why would you guys do that?'" Sabir said. "And I would look at them and say, 'Do you think I would do something like that?'"

Sabir is unsure how to calm people's fears, but his viewpoint mirrors that of another religious leader who spoke with WISN 12 News when he was in Milwaukee this week.

"One of the things that I hope comes out of this is that the more temperate, moderate prudent Islamic leaders who are in the majority will come to the fore and say, 'The fanatics don't represent us ... what was done on 9/11 is diametrically opposed to everything that Islam stands for,'" former Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan said.

That's the Islam that Sabir says taught him to be a good person, to love his family and community.

Sabir weighed-in on the proposed Islamic center near ground zero in Dolan's New York.

He said although the Imam has the right to build it, he thinks the money would be better used to build other mosques across the country.


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