I was at my son's soccer game on Saturday morning and I saw a little girl running around with a YMCA rec-league soccer shirt, a pair of sweatpants and a veil on. I had never seen her before, but the first thing I thought of was, "She and her family must be going through hell right now."
I read on
cnn.com that a Sikh man was gunned down and two other men of arabic appearance were shot at in Arizona in an apparent hate crime (all the more tragic because although members of the Sikh sect wear turbans, they are in fact Hindus, not Muslims).
An Iranian man in my own city left town upon receiving threats and is now staying with relatives. He fled the Ayatollah when the Shah's regime fell and now owns a Subway resturant. This man has lived here for the better a part of two decades and is as much an American citizen as I am. Now he is afraid for his life.
Muslims and non-Muslim arabs in America are scared to death of mob violence and retribution for a crime which was perpetrated not by, but against, them.
Didn't we learn from the Japanese Internment in the 1940s? Apparently not.
My friends, I remind you all that there are 7 million or so Muslims living in the United States, twice as many as there are Episcopalians. Plus there are many more people of arabic descent who are not Muslims. I assure you that arabs and Muslims wept as the World Trade Towers collapsed just as surely as I did. I assure you that just like you and I, their hearts break with every story that comes out of New York about someone's father, mother, daughter, son, brother or sister who was in one of the Towers or in the Pentagon and has not been heard from since Tuesday morning.
Some are immigrants, some are citizens, but I assure you that they are just as patriotic as you or I. This crime was committed not just against white, christian America, but against us all: black, asian, catholic, gay, white, disabled, and all of the other labels our society uses. Our Muslim and arabic friends are no more responsible for this attack than all Baptists are responsible for abortion clinic bombings.
I appeal to every American who loves our country to extend the right hand of friendship to a Muslim or arab neighbour and let them know that we are all in this together. He or she may dress funny, talk with a strange accent, and call God by another name, but he or she is still your neighbour and surely wants to live out the American Dream just as you do. If the bad guys in this turn us against each other, not only would they have destroyed two of New York's most magnificent buildings, but they would destroy the very essence of what makes our nation great.
Please.
appeal for calm 
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