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Within the Pitzer community, there are individuals of the Muslim faith whose lives have been altered by fear and hatred in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. Pitzer Press talked with two of them, an international student from Saudi Arabia and a staff member born in Iran. Under the promise of anonymity, these individuals spoke with us about how they have been affected by misleading characterizations of Islam and its followers by some Americans and some American news reports.
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Left with an overwhelming sense of sadness and fear, the student has been left with a need to speak out - able to do so only perhaps because he is a member of the Pitzer community.
"I want people to get a perspective that's not American because a lot of people have been hearing some negative stuff about Saudi Arabia," he said. "I just want people to see that it's not as horrible or as crazy as it sounds."
Since the events of Sept. 11, a lot of press has been devoted to Islam, much of it negative. The coverage makes the student -- a Muslim -- especially uncomfortable.
"I have been hearing from the media and various people on the street," said the student, who was born in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. "I'll hear people talking about (the terrorist attacks) and saying things like, 'This is what Islam is about.' It's like saying the KKK represents America or Christianity. That's how crazy and offensive it sounds to Muslims."
The negative media attention, of course, hasn't happened overnight, but he says all Muslims shouldn't be targeted for the acts of a relative few.
"It's been 20 years in the making in the American media," he said. "Muslim extremists and governments doing all sorts of horrible things [such as] supporting terrorism have associated the religion with
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