By WAYNE PARRY
The Associated Press
PATERSON, N.J. - Everything seemed normal Monday morning on Main Street in the
heart of New Jersey's Arab-American community: Bakeries sold sticky sweet pastries,
storefront restaurants ground chick peas for falafel sandwiches and women shoppers in
head scarfs drifted along the sidewalk.
But under the surface, there was renewed fear and anxiety in this northern New Jersey
community where as many as six of the Sept. 11 hijackers lived or spent time shortly
before the attacks.
With federal authorities raising the terror threat level to orange, citing specific threats
against the Prudential building in Newark, Muslims are once again feeling uneasy, fearing
the larger community - and law enforcement - might view them as potential terrorists.
"Our community feels under siege," said Sohail Mohammed, an immigration attorney who
has represented scores of men detained as part of the post-9/11 investigation. "Every
time there's an increase in the color level, there's an anxiety increase among Muslims.
"We have had people yell at us, `Go home!' and use curses against us," he said. "It
happens every time the level changes. We get dirty looks from people, racial slurs. It's not
pleasant, particularly if you are with young children."
"These things agitate the sense of belonging for American Muslims," added Nabil Abbassi,
a board member of the Islamic Center of Passaic County, one of the state's most
influential mosques.
"There's a sense of insecurity in the air this morning," he said.
It is not a groundless fear; the number of anti-Muslim bias incidents in New Jersey tripled
last year from 12 in 2002 to 40 in 2003. Nationwide, bias complaints to the
Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations rose from 602 in 2002 to 1,019
last year.
No new bias incidents had been reported Sunday or Monday in New Jersey, the group
said.
Steve Kodak, a spokesman for the FBI's Newark office, said agents are "following up all
logical leads," but are not conducting widespread questioning or canvassing in Arab or
Muslim areas.
"People in this community are just as against terrorism as anyone else," said Hamdi Rifai,
a Clifton attorney. "But there's an increase in scrutiny every time something happens, and
it's unwarranted. It's essentially profiling."
August 2, 2004
