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Port of Call |
LAST UPDATE July 12, 2005
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| site design imagesparkle.com |
| September 10, 2004 |
New York, USA – The Day After: September 11th's Other Victims |
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| Towers of Light Tribute for the third anniversary of September 11th |
From the moment the two airliners smashed into the World Trade Center on September 11th in 2001, the
lives of the families of the almost 3,000 victims were changed forever. At the same moment, the course
of Debbie Almontaser's life also changed drastically. For Almontaser, a Yemeni-American woman living
in Brooklyn, however, the change didn't come in the form of overwhelming tragedy followed by an outpouring
of sympathy, but in discrimination that bubbled up overnight against the Arab-American community in
New York City and across the United States. Standing at the former World Trade Center site - "Ground
Zero" - on the third anniversary of the attacks, she explained about the continuing influence
September 11th has had on her neighborhood and her own family. "They [the hi-jackers] did it
for their own reasons, not for religon. So I felt I had to speak up for my people and my religion,
that we don't condone this," she said. |
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| Multicultural Education Specialist Debbie Almontaser at Ground Zero |
Almontaser, now a Multicultural Education Specialist and Peace Education worker, acted as a guide
for Peace Boat Global University students on a day long tour of the UN headquarters, the former World
Trade Center site and an Arab-American community. Walking around the steel fence surrounding where
the WTC once stood, she described to the group what her son, a soldier deployed to Ground Zero on
September 12th, experienced there. He had spent six months walking up to his knees in soot and making
his way through the buildings hulking debris. "The police, firemen and soldiers there had started
to write racial slurs in the dust on cars and trucks. One said 'To hell with all Arabs' and another
'Let's bomb the Muslim world.'" Almontaser's son, who spent six months there helping with the
recovery efforts, was told by his general to hide his ID and name, because of fears he would be attacked.
Emergency Medical Service and clean-up crews who looked Arab also faced harassment and discrimination. |
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| Peace Boat at Pier 88 in New York City |
As Americans grew increasingly fearful of terrorists, Arab-Americans too felt afraid - of their fellow
Americans and what might happen to themselves. Although Almontaser said some ethnic tensions have
faded, the government's crackdown on her community has continued, with many Arab-American volunteers
and workers such as her son not receiving payment or health benefits after suffering from asbestos
and other air contaminants at Ground Zero. "Unfortunately no government or organizations stepped
forward to advocate for their mental and physical health. After the war begun my son had been very
patriotic, he was for the war in Afghanistan and Iraq. But after this his whole entire image of his
country changed," Almontaser said. |
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| Family members and other visitors remembering WTC victims |
The climate of fear served to drive many New Yorkers away from their traditional street life, especially
in ethnic communities whose lifeblood is restaurant and retail income. Whole communities were devastated
by the sudden downturn, with many stores in Chinatown closing down. The city and state government
stepped in, however, to help them with loans and politicians even came down to eat to Chinese take-out
to show other New Yorkers it was safe. Little aid, however, was forthcoming to the Arab-American community
that had mostly settled across the East River in Brooklyn. |
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| Peace Boat participants visiting Lebanese-American owned bread and pasty shop
Damascus |
This new fear-driven economic pressure only further accelerated the process of gentrification that
was splitting up the Arab-American community. Almontaser's own family once owned six restaurants,
all of which are closed now, with the last three closing due to the downturn in the economy since
9/11. The GU group stopped at Lebanese-American Charlie Sahadi's specialty and Middle Eastern food
store. Sahadi met the group and argued that the atmosphere of fear encouraged by politicians has done
more damage than the anger some felt immediately after the attacks. "We're often asked how we
were treated after 9/11. People showed a lot of love and respect for who we are and not what our background
is - our background did not do this," Sahadi stressed. "Just because the terrorists spoke
Arabic does not mean others who speak Arabic are like them." |
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| Arab-American Family Support Center director Emira Habiby-Brown |
In response to this pressure on them, members of the community organized and rose
to meet the new challenges. Since 1994 the Arab-American Family Support Center has been providing
the area's immigrant population with Arabic and English language courses as well as medical, employment
and legal advice. Emira Habiby-Brown, director and founder of the center, said their focus is on
giving adults new skills to help them adapt and encouraging pride in their identity for youth.
According to Habiby-Brown, the Arab-American community in New York traces its roots to over 100
years ago, when Middle Eastern people from diverse countries started to immigrate to the city,
mostly from Syria and Lebanon. "For some of them it's easy, they integrate, get jobs and become
part of the society quickly. But some really struggle with language, job skills and the American
system," she said.
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| Peace messages left at Ground Zero |
Habiby-Brown and many others were disturbed when they saw rampant racial profiling and detentions
taking place without opposition. "When 911 happened, our role changed a bit to deal with the
targeting of Arab-Americans and Muslims," she said. Their actions were in direct response to
the new needs of a community under fire - from escorting children to school to securing government
aid and legal counseling. "We began to speak out about the discrimination and racial profiling,
because we wanted them to understand that this is a very diverse community that's been here a long
time and is part of this country and that we're like everyone else," Habiby-Brown said adamantly. |
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| World Trade 7 building rises again in Lower Manhattan |
Shaker Lashuel, cultural coordinator of the Yemeni-American Association, said
the various ethnic groups banded together in order to counter the environment of intimidation
and to question what their leaders were doing. Opposition to the war in Iraq was an especially
delicate topic, but one that directly affected the community, who still have relatives in the
Middle East. "It doesn't matter if it's in Iraq or Indonesia or South Africa. People are
generally against the killing of innocent civilians wherever they are." Lashuel, "The
American government wants to treat these different countries as separate, isolated issues. But
the Arab-American and Muslim community doesn't see these as isolated cases - they see a connection
between the Palestinian-Israel conflict, Iraq and Afghanistan."
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