I remember it like yesterday. I can't believe it's been ten years already. It's definitely changed our lives significantly.
I was at the Medical College of Ohio hospital doing research with a Dr. Juan Sanabria on liver transplants. I was applying to medical schools, and transplanting rat livers was going to be my research. We were walking around the hospital. He was showing me around the various parts of the hospital. Then we saw it on TV. We walked by a few rooms, and I could see the smoke bellowing from the towers and some replays of the planes crashing into them. I knew something was awfully wrong.
"It's probably Middle Eastern", I heard two old ladies say in a stairwell as we were walking down to the lab. Dr. Sanabria (who was a recent immigrant from Columbia) looked at me and told me to move along. I knew he heard them, and I knew he wanted to protect me or get my mind off it. We continued on to the lab, and our day progressed as it normally does. But at some point in the afternoon someone at the hospital decided that the rest of today was going to be called off, except for necessary personnel.
I was on the medical school interview trail and thought that my chances of being accepted significantly decreased because of Sept 11 and my name being "Mohammed". I had been on waiting lists a few times before in the past few years, but I thought that this year, especially right after 911, wasn't going to be my year. I had an interview at the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine a few month after 911, and the first question they asked me was, "So Mohammed (he pronounced it Ma ham Hed), what do they call you?" In a very southern drawl. Needless to say, I was accepted the next day at that school. But I had one more interview in Chicago, and I preferred Chicago to West Virginia. I was accepted a few weeks later in Chicago, and the rest is history.
For me it was a double tragedy. The tragedy that everyone else felt, and the fear of a nationwide backlash against Muslims. I was afraid that my fellow Americans would be angry and would channel that anger into acts of vigilante justice against their fellow Muslim Americans. Thank God that never happened. Americans did what they do best in time of stress, they pulled together and helped one another.
My wife was walking out of class to walk to her car on the campus of the University of Toledo. Some random lady offerred to drive her to her car, worried that if she were to walk the entire distance, someone may run her over.
A group of 3000 Christians and Jews surrounded the local Mosque in a Cirlce of Love to help protect it.
Our neighbors always called in to check on us and see if we were alright. They even offerred to do our grocery shopping for us.
I think what really helped was some of President Bush's speech a day later at a local Washington DC mosque televised to the nation. Here are some snippets:
Share your story? How did 911 affect you? Where were you what happened and how did people react? I think it'd be especially interesting to hear from Muslim women on this issue.
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