On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Yahya Hendi recalls telling his wife not to leave their Gaithersburg home for any reason.
Nearly 10 years ago, members of al-Qaida, a terrorist group led by Osama bin Laden, hijacked commercial jets and crashed them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pa., killing nearly 3,000 people.
Since al-Qaida has ties to an extreme form of Islam, Hendi feared that many would regard all Muslims as radicals. He was especially fearful that his wife, who wears a hijab, a traditional head covering for Muslim women, might be harmed.
But things have changed since then, Hendi said recently while sitting in Frederick Memorial Hospital. He had just finished giving a lecture there on caring for Muslim patients. About 150 doctors and nurses attended.
“This is a reflection,” Hendi said, speaking of the way the Muslim community in Frederick County has been regarded since the 2001 terrorist attacks. People here want to “understand their Muslim neighbor.”
Hendi, who now lives in Frederick County and is the Muslim chaplain for Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., spent much of the weeks after Sept. 11, 2001, giving lectures about his faith at churches and events in the area, invited by religious leaders and others who wanted to offer a better understanding of Islam to those who were interested.
Frederick County was especially welcoming, and the people who make their home here were eager to learn more, Hendi said.
"People did not want to rush into judgment,” he said.
As the days and weeks since the Sept. 11 attacks turned into months and years, even more effort has been made to understand Islam.
On Aug. 18, Mary Liz Austin, a member of St. Katharine Drexel Catholic Church in Frederick, sat in a pavilion outside the Islamic Society of Frederick with members of several other religious groups from throughout the Frederick community. Members of the society welcomed them for Iftar — the sunset meal with which Muslims break their fasting on days in the holy month of Ramadan.
The event, one of many like it since the Islamic Society building on Key Parkway was completed in 2004, included prayer, a meal and a question-and-answer session about Islam.
Austin said Hendi, who was once the Imam, or religious leader at the Islamic Society, spoke to her church about three years ago, and she and her daughter were so inspired by his words that they founded the Frederick Interfaith Youth Project.
The group brings young people from many religions together for service projects and to learn more about each other’s faiths. Among the religious bodies in the community that participate are the Evangelical Reformed United Church of Christ, Congregation Kol Ami, St. Katharine Drexel and the Islamic Society, Austin said.
Upon meeting and getting to know each other as individuals, children who participate "see the common goals," she said. "We all want the same things."
Duaa Bakhari, secretary of the Islamic Society of Frederick and organizer of Frederick Interfaith Youth events, agreed.
Outreach helps people "see who we really are," she said. "Not just the media and the stereotypes."
Another guest of the Iftar dinner was Linda Funsch, a Frederick Community College and Hood College professor who teaches courses on Islam, cultures of the Middle East and Middle Eastern history.
"The popularity of these programs has been very impressive since 9/11," she said. "I think we are coming to a greater understanding."
Funsch said she remembers Sept. 11, 2001, clearly.
She remembers her "concern for the likely backlash" upon finding out who the hijacker suspects were. "Regrettably, that concern was justified," she said.
"When fear is based on ignorance, it often causes people to act in ways which in fact don't mirror their own faith," she said.
Hendi recalls a time when a classmate of his then 9-year-old daughter told her to "go home." He remembers when the Islamic Society center was vandalized shortly after it was built. But he said he will never forget the feeling of receiving money for repairs from churches and sympathy cards from community members.
“One said ‘I can never be true to Jesus if I am not protective of my Muslim neighbor,’" Hendi said, noting that the sentiment made him cry.
The past 10 years have not been completely free of anti-Muslim expressions, but "with education, things have changed and they continue to change," he added.
Funsch agreed.
"I'd say that the attacks of 9/11 were perpetrated by people who perverted the message, the meaning of Islam, and hijacked that faith for their own maniacal purposes," she said. When people take her courses, they learn the true message of the religion, which is peace.
"That's why I keep doing it," she said. "When you look into people's eyes and you see that 'Aha' moment, it makes it all worthwhile.”
cpomeroy@gazette.net
Copyright © 2012 Post-Newsweek Media, Inc./Gazette.Net