While Muslim women around the country felt the backlash and the hate that followed the September 11 attacks, here at RPI the community did everything to make us feel safe, welcome, and protected. It was not just the Department of Public Safety, the health center, the faculty, the staff or the administration; it was the individuals and the people who came up to us and asked if we needed help or if we had faced any discrimination. It was all the e-mails and the phone calls that people made to ask if we were safe. Yes, we were all afraid, but being a Muslim and a woman tripled that fear. We sincerely thank everyone who made the phone calls, the visits, and asked about us. A year later, the negativity that we associate with the tragedy is somewhat overshadowed with all the positivity that we saw around us. It is love that conquers, never hate.

In reflection, and looking at the world around us, 9-11 has marked an era of bloodshed that people from all around the world have felt. Conflicts today are more than they were a year ago and human rights are threatened everywhere. In reflection, and looking at our nation, we are poorer than were a year ago. Our corporations and something called “ethics” seem to clash, our civil rights have been butchered, and war with other nations has been about the only major “reform” we have seen from D.C. It is not politics, or economy, or even the military that worries us on principle. What worries us are the people, the millions caught in the vise—are we loyal or are we not. It is the “good” vs. “evil” rhetoric that is being applied to the gray, the black and the white, that worries us. It is the uncertainty and fear that we feel whenever we think of the future that worries us. It is the daily talk of terrorism, terrorists, and radical Islam that worries us. When is the end of all of this and how do know when it ends? Do we tell by the number of people we kill, by the sense of peace we feel, or by the amount of money we give to our military?

It is an uncertain world out there. Only our faith, our principles, our love, and the edge that we get from life’s experiences—these are the only certain things.

Executive Board of the Rensselaer Muslim