Leader of Islamic Society Wary of Stereotyping

At 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 11, Saif Iqbal Shah Mohammed ’02, the new president of the Harvard Islamic Society (HIS), was hunched over his computer, working on an economics project.

Just a half hour later, economics seemed at best a distant concern.

“I just decided to check the BBC website,” Shah Mohammed said. “My first thought was, ‘God, that must be a horrible pilot. Then the second plane crashed and that’s when I got really scared.”

Soft spoken and slight, with earnest dark eyes and short, carefully combed black hair, Shah Mohammed knew, as president of HIS, that he would be called on to lead the Muslim community at Harvard through this tragedy.

“I thought about the people in the plane first. I felt absolutely, absolutely horrified.” he said. “How could I tell people that whoever did this...it was not an act of my faith?”

Shah Mohammed immediately organized discussion groups and gatherings to help people come to terms with their grief. He also went to the Islamic Society of Boston to condemn the terrorism, express the sadness within the Muslim community and receive advice.

“We didn’t consider public relations or publicity. We did what was natural for people in America and people anywhere who felt terrified by this event,” Shah Mohammed said.

Shah Mohammed’s quiet, forthright manner helped him sooth the tension and grief unleashed by the terrorism, other prominent Muslims at Harvard said.

“He’s had to rise to the occasion both in terms of explaining to the larger public what [Muslim] beliefs are as well as ministering to the Muslim community on campus,” said Zayed M. Yasin ’02, a former HIS president. “It’s a very difficult and stressful time and he’s been handling it phenomenonally.”

Despite national leaders’ words of support and admonition against targeting Muslims, Tuesday’s events sparked widespread violence and prejudice against those of South Asian descent.

In Texas, police are investigating a firebombing attack at a mosque. In Long Island, a Pakistani owned shop was burned in an alleged arson attack. And across the country, harrassment of Muslim Americans has intensified.

As an Arab student born in Bangladesh and a visible leader of the Islamic community, Shah Mohammed said he knew he would face suspicion and hostility.

“The backlash that at that time I thought was going to happen has already happened,” Shah Mohammed said.

Shah Mohammed has urged members of the Islamic society to take precautions against personal attacks, even though he said he has faith in the “reasonableness” of the Harvard community. Nevertheless, he has asked the Harvard University Police Department to keep watch over the basement in Canaday--where Islamic students meet and pray--and advised Muslim students not to walk alone at night.

But the tragedy truly hit home a few days ago, when Shah Mohammed received his first hatemail.

“It was just a very misinformed piece saying that Islam promoted violence against innocent people and that we are less American than the rest of the nation. I am still trying to come to terms with it. It’s almost a loss of innocence for me,” Shah Mohammed said.

Although Shah Mohammed said this week has been the toughest of his life “without a doubt,” he has faced serious adversity before. Shah Mohammed’s father works as an engineer in the Kuwait government, and when Iraq invaded the country in 1990, the family had to be evacuated. For a week and a half he was a refugee, fleeing Kuwait through Iraq and Jordan. He eventually made it back to his homeland of Bangladesh.

While in Kuwait, Shah Mohammed attended an American school before coming to Harvard.

He was chosen as president of HIS because, Yasin said, “We can all be proud of his representation of Islam here on campus. He’s a very dedicated and very thoughtful individual.”

While Shah Mohammed is eager to explain his his faith, he refused to discuss his own political beliefs or fault the U.S. for its policies towards the Middle East, calling a discussion of geopolitics irrelevant after a tragedy of Tuesday’s magnitude.

With a glint of resolve--and almost anger--flashing in his eyes, Shah Mohammed warned against forgetting what he thought were the real issues.

“To tie everything into the supposed greater stuggle between the Muslim world and America is dishonorable to those who lost their lives,” he said. “A crime was committed and the people who committed it need to be punished.”

Perhaps surprisingly amidst the outburst of prejudice against South Asian people, Shah Mohammed is not althogether gloomy about the future. His biggest worry is that innocent people in countries like Afghanistan may fall victim to American retaliation. Many in the Islamic community at Harvard have families in Middle Eastern countries and fear what will happen, Shah Mohammed said.

“I’d like people to realize that Muslims in America are as American as anyone else. This was as much an attack on us as well as the rest of America,” he said.