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Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Muslim, Non-Muslim positive story sites? |
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| Matt |
| 05/20/03 at 01:44:19 |
| I'm looking for sites that might contain stories of acts of kindness between Muslims and Non-Muslims or between Arab-Americans and non-Arab-Americans. I've been to a few community sites and haven't had much luck. I'd like to link to them, or collect them for my site, but I've been dissappointed at the lack of positive stories. I hope it's not an indication of how far we have to go. I think that most of us who want to see an improvement but don't know what we can do have more to learn from stories of people who have worked to overcome differences. This is my first time here (impressive site!). It seems like a knowledgeable group, so I thought I'd ask. |
| Re: Muslim, Non-Muslim positive story sites? |
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| ascetic |
| 05/20/03 at 01:54:51 |
| Hello Matt, There was a site called www.interfaithpeace.org/ which had journal entries of non-muslim women who donned a headscarf for a day to show their solidarity with muslim women and then wrote about their experience. But it seems they've taken down that site. But I've dug it up from the internet archives. You can find it here: http://web.archive.org/web/20020525100030/http://www.interfaithpeace.org/ Hope that helps. Peace. --Zahid. |
| Re: Muslim, Non-Muslim positive story sites? |
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| sofia |
| 05/20/03 at 13:17:20 |
| Peace, Matt, Funny you should ask, since Maliha just started a thread on this topic under the "Tree of Hope" folder (look for an thread on heartwarming stories). May want to wait it out a bit, since I'm sure there are many more stories to be posted there, inshaa'Allah. Actually, [url=http://www.cair-net.org/]CAIR[/url] had been collecting positive stories after 9/11, so you may want to contact them, as well. Good luck. And no, I don't think it's an indication of what the real picture is, at least not for American Muslims (not to deny the more tragic stories, but the positive stories far outweigh those). Allahu A'lim/God knows best. |
| 05/20/03 at 13:26:36 |
| sofia |
| Re: Muslim, Non-Muslim positive story sites? |
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| Matt |
| 05/20/03 at 18:23:29 |
| I knew I came to the right place! That's a great thread and I will keep an eye on it. I came across the CAIR website a few weeks ago and was very happy to see that they collected such stories. Now, if we could only talk them into publishing some. I wrote them several days ago, but have received no response so far. Thank you very much, zahid and sofia. If there are other sites out there (like interfaithpeace), please let me know. |
| Re: Muslim, Non-Muslim positive story sites? |
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| a_Silver_Rose |
| 05/20/03 at 18:33:15 |
| [slm] This story brought tears to my eyes.and still does everytime I read it..found in http://www.jannah.org/resources/usman.html [color=Blue]My name is Usman Farman and I graduated from Bentley with a Finance degree last May. I am 21 years old, turning 22 in October; I am Pakistani, and I am Muslim. Until September 10th 2001, I used to work at the World Trade Center in building #7. I had friends and acquaintances who worked in tower #1 right across from me. Some made it out, and some are still unaccounted for. I survived this horrible event. Id like to share with you what I went through that awful day, with the hopes that we can all stay strong together; through this tragedy of yet untold proportions. As I found out, regardless of who we are, and where we come from, we only have each other. I commute into the city every morning on the train from New Jersey. Rather, I used to. I still cant believe what is happening. That morning I woke up and crawled out of bed. I was thinking about flaking out on the train and catching the late one, I remember telling myself that I just had to get to work on time. I ended up catching the 7:48 train, which put me in Hoboken at 8:20 am. When I got there I thought about getting something to eat, I decided against it and took the PATH train to the World Trade Center. I arrived at the World Trade at 8:40 in the morning. I walked into the lobby of building 7 at 8:45, thats when the first plane hit. Had I taken the late train, or gotten a bite to eat, I would have been 5 minutes late and walking over the crosswalk. Had that happened, I would have been caught under a rain of fire and debris, I wouldnt be here talking to you. Id be dead. I was in the lobby, and I heard the first explosion; it didnt register. They were doing construction outside and I thought some scaffolding had fallen. I took the elevators up to my office on the 27th floor. When I walked in, the whole place was empty. There were no alarms, no sprinklers, nothing. Our offices are, or rather, were on the south side of building seven. We were close enough to the North and South Towers, that I could literally throw a stone from my window and hit the North tower with it. My phone rang and I spoke with my mother and told her that I was leaving, at that moment I saw an explosion rip out of the second building. I called my friend in Boston, waking her up and told her to tell everyone Im okay, and that I was leaving. I looked down one last time and saw the square and fountain that I eat lunch in, was covered in smoldering debris. Apparently, I was one of the last to leave my building, when I was on the way up in the elevators; my co-workers from the office were in the stairwells coming down. When I evacuated, there was no panic. People were calm and helping eachother; a pregnant woman was being carried down the stairwell. Ill spare the more gruesome details of what I saw, those are things that no-one should ever have to see, and beyond human decency to describe. Those are things which will haunt me for the rest of my life, my heart goes out to everyone who lost their lives that day, and those who survived with the painful reminders of what once was. Acquaintences of mine who made it out of the towers, only got out because 1000 people formed a human chain to find their way out of the smoke. Everyone was a hero that day. We were evacuated to the north side of building 7. Still only 1 block from the towers. The security people told us to go north and not to look back. 5 city blocks later I stopped and turned around to watch. With a thousand people staring, we saw in shock as the first tower collapsed. No-one could believe it was happening, it is still all too-surreal to imagine. The next thing I remember is that a dark cloud of glass and debris about 50 stories high came tumbling towards us. I turned around and ran as fast as possible. I didnt realize until yesterday that the reason Im still feeling so sore was that I fell down trying to get away. What happened next is why I came here to give this speech. I was on my back, facing this massive cloud that was approaching, it must have been 600 feet off, everything was already dark. I normally wear a pendant around my neck, inscribed with an Arabic prayer for safety; similar to the cross. A hesidic Jewish man came up to me and held the pendant in his hand, and looked at it. He read the Arabic out loud for a second. What he said next, I will never forget. With a deep Brooklyn accent he said Brother, if you dont mind, there is a cloud of glass coming at us, grab my hand, lets get the hell out of here. He helped me stand up, and we ran for what seemed like forever without looking back. He was the last person I would ever have thought, who would help me. If it werent for him, I probably would have been engulfed in shattered glass and debris. I finally stopped about 20 blocks away, and looked in horror as tower #2 came crashing down. Fear came over me as I realized that some people were evacuated to the streets below the towers. Like I said before, no-one could have thought those buildings could collapse. We turned around and in shock and disbelief and began the trek to midtown. It took me 3 hours to get to my sisters office at 3 avenue and 47th street. Some streets were completely deserted, completely quiet, no cars, no nothing just the distant wail of sirens. I managed to call home and say I was okay, and get in touch with co-workers and friends whom I feared were lost. We managed to get a ride to new jersey. Looking back as I crossed the George Washington Bridge, I could not see the towers. It had really happened. As the world continues to reel from this tragedy, people in the streets are lashing out. Not far from my home, a Pakistani woman was run over on purpose as she was crossing the parking lot to put groceries in her car. Her only fault? That she had her head covered and was wearing the traditional clothing of my homeland. I am afraid for my familys well-being within our community. My older sister is too scared to take the subway into work now. My 8 year old sisters school is under lockdown and armed watch by police. Violence only begets violence, and by lashing out at each other in fear and hatred, we will become no better than the faceless cowards who committed this atrocity. If it werent for that man who helped me get up, I would most likely be in the hospital right now, if not dead. Help came from the least expected place, and goes only to show, that we are all in this together regardless of race, religion, or ethnicity. Those are principles that this country was founded on. Please take a moment to look at the people sitting around you. Friends or strangers, In a time of crisis, you would want the nearest person to help you if you needed it. My help came from a man who I would never have thought would normally even speak to me. Ask yourselves now how you can help those people in New York and Washington. You can donate blood, you can send clothing, food, and money. Funds have been setup in the New York area to help the families of fallen firefighters, policemen, and emergency personnel. The one thing that wont help, is if we fight amongst ourselves, because it is then that we are doing exactly what they want us to do, and I know that nobody here wants to do that. My name is Usman Farman and I graduated from Bentley with a Finance degree last May. I am 21 years old, turning 22 in October; I am Pakistani, and I am Muslim, and I too have been victimized by this awful tragedy. The next time you feel angry about this, and perhaps want to retaliate in your own way, please remember these words: Brother, if you dont mind, there is a cloud of glass coming at us, grab my hand, lets get the hell out of here. [/color] [color=Red]9/25 Note from Jannah.Org: We finally were able to contact Br. Usman. So many ppl have asked us about contacting him/reprinting issues. This is what he wrote back to add to this article: "My name is Usman Farman, and I am the author of the following speech.I have given jannah.org permission to post this up. Due to the impact of this speech around the world, and the constant questions everyone has about my identity and the validity of this story, I have the following to say... YES, I am a real person, and YES this is a true account of what happened, not a hoax at all. Furthermore, I give permission to everyone to post this on their websites/send it out on list-servs etc. However, if someone would like to reprint this, they need to contact me first. You can email someone at jannah.org and they will contact me for permission. Best Regards and Godspeed, Usman Farman" [/color] |
| 05/20/03 at 18:35:59 |
| a_Silver_Rose |
| Re: Muslim, Non-Muslim positive story sites? |
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| Al-Basha |
| 05/20/03 at 20:13:37 |
| [slm] subhana Allah, very heartwarming story. |
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