Great article followed by the usual fear and hate.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/29/911.muslim.widow/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

Edmond, Oklahoma (CNN) -- His smiling image has been cut out of a snapshot and carefully added to a photo of his father, so it looks as if the boy is standing beside the man. It smacks of a bad Photoshop job, but it gives the two a shared moment, even though they never met.
The boy's sister, Fahina, created the montage. She is 15 and clings to scant memories and aging photographs. But Farqad, almost 10, has nothing.
She remembers sitting beside their father on amusement park rides, his words -- "Look at my daughter; she's so brave" -- soothing her nerves; she still thinks of him whenever she's on a rollercoaster. She leaned on his legs when he watched basketball on TV and imagined him cheering her on when she played the sport after he was gone. She recalls being driven to see Harvard University, before she even started elementary school, and dreams of attending an Ivy League school to make him proud.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, she woke up extra early on her own. After her father and mother finished saying morning prayers, the young girl took his face in her small hands and enlisted the promise of a Chuck E. Cheese visit. Father and daughter then kissed and said goodbye.
Farqad was born two days later, after terrorists hijacked planes and killed nearly 3,000 -- including 38-year-old Mohammad Salahuddin Chowdhury, who worked atop the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
The Windows on the World banquet server was a degreed physicist in his native Bangladesh and a U.S. citizen who aspired to do so much more in his adopted country. He kept a pager at hand that fateful morning, just in case his wife went into labor.
"I can't imagine not having any memories," said his firstborn, Fahina, unable to hold back her sobs. "Someday, Farqad's going to search online and see everything. I have to help him understand."
This teen's uber-sense of responsibility extends beyond what she believes she owes her brother. As a young woman whose father was killed by men who dared to say they shared her Islamic faith, Fahina feels an obligation to speak up, to be the face of her often-misunderstood religion -- even if she'd prefer not to be known for what she lost and how she lost it.
"For a Muslim person to go through this, it's something no one can understand," she said, the tears still falling. "Extremists used the religion as an excuse to do terrible things. It's so much easier to be mad at people than to get to know them."
Following an unmarked path
Reminders of that terrible day reverberate 1,300 miles from New York, inside a large, modern brick home on a quiet cul-de-sac just north of Oklahoma City.
From framed photographs scattered everywhere, Chowdhury's dark, gentle eyes and thick lashes peer out at the family he left behind. These were the eyes that captured Baraheen Ashrafi when she first met him at their wedding in Bangladesh nearly two decades ago. She wondered whether she was marrying a movie star.
Theirs was an arranged marriage, and what she got in the match was more than a man with good looks. He had lost his parents and cared about hers as if they were his own. He taught her the value of forgiveness, the beauty of Islam and the gifts that come with love. He told her that she was brought to him through prayers.
She laughs when she remembers how clueless she was in the kitchen when she joined him in his beloved New York -- a city she jokingly called "his homeland" -- and how he marveled at her culinary progress. Though he didn't find it funny, she giggles at the memory of putting lipstick on him while he slept and scooping his thick hair up into small ponytails. She smiles when mentioning the staring contests she made him play so he would look deeply into her eyes.
But Ashrafi breaks down when she recalls what he feared.
"He was very afraid of fire, very scared of burning," she said, describing his complaints after mere steam from hot tea once left a mark on his hand. "He was like a baby."
In the weeks after September 11, firefighters promised her that Chowdhury died from smoke inhalation before ever feeling a flame.
If there were a roadmap when it comes to grieving, the journey taken by Ashrafi and her children was unmarked.
She watched Muslim men, afraid to stand out, shave off their beards. Women removed their religious head coverings, known as hijabs. But even as she reeled from grief, Ashrafi somehow found the strength to respond differently.
Though she hadn't worn a hijab in public before, her faith ran deep, thanks to her husband. Two weeks after she lost him, she decided it was time to put on her hijab.
That made her a widow who couldn't count on the kindness of strangers. Her sadness was compounded by hate. Just months after the attacks, boys screamed "jihad!" at Ashrafi and a confused Fahina on a Manhattan street.
While other surviving parents struggled to explain September 11 to their children, Ashrafi faced an additional challenge: Fahina wanted to know why the TV said Muslims killed her daddy.
Chowdhury was one of 32 Muslim victims on September 11, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations. That distinction has put Ashrafi and her children in the spotlight. Adding to the attention, Ashrafi says, is that Farqad is believed to be the first baby born to a September 11 widow. (CNN could not confirm this, but the boy came into this world the morning of September 13, 2001.)
As the 10-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks approaches, Ashrafi has fielded calls from around the world. A documentary unit from the United Kingdom visited their home. A reporter from Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates sought a sit-down visit. An Australian TV crew is scheduled to fly to Oklahoma this week.
He was in my heart to do good things, and he watches me.
--Farqad Chowdhury, born two days after his father died on 9/11
All of the attention appears to leave Farqad a little numb. He tears himself away from video games, flops down in a plush sitting room chair and rattles off words he can say but doesn't seem to fully feel.
Up until a few years ago, he'd heard only that his father died in an accident. He's still trying to get his head around the truth.
"My dad was in work, and the plane was crashing, and there was a fire there," he said, staring across the room at his mother. "Then my father died. Then I was born. I was born in New York."
Does he know who was behind what happened to his dad?
"A bad guy did it," he said, his eyes still locked on his mother.
"Do you know how many people were with your dad?" she asked.
"Lots," he answered. "Maybe 20?"
Completing his life
Ashrafi was walking back from Fahina's school when American Airlines Flight 11 slammed into the North Tower. She wouldn't get this news until later. But looking back, she realizes that was the moment she felt a surge rush through her belly.
She wasn't yet in labor, but the sensation stopped her. She focused on getting home to rest.
The sex of their second child was a secret she'd kept to herself. She'd known for only a few weeks, but in case the sonogram reading was wrong, she stayed mum.
Her husband had told her that having a son would complete his life. She couldn't wait to see his face when he met their boy.
"He told me he'd be the happiest man in the world," she said, crying. "I was dreaming how his face would be. ... Why did I not tell him?"
She was resting in bed when one of her sisters called to ask Ashrafi where her husband was. "At work," she answered, matter-of-factly. Her sister screamed.
Family and friends soon filled the Queens home. They kept Ashrafi away from the television because the late stages of pregnancy already had pushed her blood pressure too high.
Someone picked up Fahina from school. Just 5 at the time, she remembers seeing all the shoes outside their home's front door and struggling to understand the standing-room-only crowd inside.
Two days later, in the hospital, Ashrafi still expected Chowdhury to walk into the room. She clung to the far-fetched plotlines of romance films. He simply had amnesia and was wandering, lost, she told herself. With time, they'd find each other.
Her sisters surrounded her during a C-section deemed necessary by doctors given the circumstances. When they brought Farqad to her, she looked into the big dark eyes of her husband.
"Daddy wants that, too"
Before he could even speak, Farqad admired himself in mirrors.
"He was such a cute baby, and he knew it, too," Fahina said, flipping through photos.
Their father wasn't so different. Fahina points out pictures of him posing, often alone. For a time, when Farqad saw images of his father holding children, he would scream, "That's me!"
Later, the boy discovered the few pieces of Chowdhury's clothing that his mother had saved. After school, Farqad would change into a dark red T-shirt that dwarfed his small frame. Nowadays, his mother sometimes catches him saying good night to his father's photograph.
"He was in my heart to do good things, and he watches me," the boy said.
"If someone's mean to you? What do you say?" his mother asked. "What does mommy tell you?"
He peers at her and shrugs.
"To be nice to people," she told him.
"I don't want to be nice to mean people," he said.
She smiles. "But that's the way they'll learn to be nice. And Daddy wants that, too."
This was a lesson she says her husband exemplified. She tries to live it herself.
When a man behind her in a Wal-Mart checkout line muttered something about Muslims, she didn't flinch. She felt sorry for the boys who pelted her car with soda cans while screaming "Hey, Muslim!" And she shook off the sting after a woman in a wheelchair, struggling to reach an item on a grocery store shelf, refused Ashrafi's offer of assistance.
"I don't want any help from a Muslim," the woman snapped.
The truth is, she can handle occasional insults in Oklahoma. She couldn't bear them in New York, where everywhere she turned, she was reminded of what was gone.
She and the children moved away in 2002, opting for a simpler, more affordable life near one of her sisters.
Ashrafi says she had to start anew, even if she still cleaves to the past.
Sacrifices and dreams
Ashrafi's focus narrowed after September 11.
"My whole world is this house and my kids," she says. "God chose me to be given these two kids and for me to raise them on my own. ... I want to enjoy every moment with them."
She has no plans to return to her job in a bank. She rarely socializes beyond her family. At 39, she vows to die Chowdhury's wife.
So when people, including family members, tell her they're praying she'll meet someone, she shoots back, "Please don't pray that for me; that would be a curse!"
She lost her own father in 1997. Her mother, who moved in with Ashrafi and her kids for five years after September 11, often tells Ashrafi to do something for herself. Her response is to say that when Farqad goes to college, maybe she will go to school, too.
Her husband always told her she should be an interior designer. Her home is full of floral arrangements she created, unique decorative pieces she seized on sale and furnishings fit for a showroom.
Chowdhury planned to complete a degree in computer information systems. But with another child on the way, he hadn't yet walked away from the good money he was making at Windows on the World.
I still feel blessed. I'm just trying to make my dad proud.
--Fahina Chowdhury, who was 5 when her father died in the terror attacks
He envisioned great success for his offspring, and Ashrafi does, too. She boasts about their grades, has hired a tutor to help Farqad with his homework -- so she and Fahina don't have to be "the bad guys" -- and encourages her children to aim high.
Fahina, who wants to be a doctor, says she doesn't need to be prodded.
She sees her mother's sacrifices and knows her father worked as a waiter for them and not because that was his dream.
"I know if he was here, he'd be pushing me. So I try to push myself," she said. Even with all her family has endured, "I still feel blessed. I'm just trying to make my dad proud."
Honoring without ceremony
On September 11, Ashrafi and her kids will not join other victims' families in New York. They aren't drawn to large public ceremonies. They remember the anniversary every day, they say, and would rather continue doing so privately.
Fahina says she prays extra hard for her father on these anniversaries.
She is a young woman with faith beyond her years. Before she was 5, she swore off McDonald's. While other kids clamored for Happy Meals, she insisted on eating only meats certified as halal, acceptable according to Islamic law. By the time she was 9, she wanted to fast during Ramadan. She began praying at 11 and brings her prayer mat with her when she stays with friends.
Ashrafi takes great pride in the diversity that surrounds her children and in their open-mindedness. She loves that one of Fahina's best friends is Jewish, that she's grown up attending sleepovers with girls of all religious backgrounds and that her high school honors Fahina's upbringing, too.
When a fringe Florida pastor first threatened to burn the Quran during last year's September 11 anniversary, Fahina came to school to find classmates wearing green to honor Islam. On a student's Converse sneakers, she spotted the scrawled words "I love the Quran."
On September 11, Ashrafi says, prayers will be said for her husband in his brother's home in Bangladesh, as they are every year on this date. And just as she's done on each anniversary, Ashrafi will send money to Bangladesh to uphold a family tradition of honoring the dead by bringing food to orphanages. Chowdhury's brother will make the delivery.
Ashrafi does not attend a mosque. She says she finds all she needs in the confines of her home and in her Quran. But every Saturday, she sends her children to a small mosque to learn about the Quran and Islamic history.
Fahina feels a strong commitment to her religious education. She says she needs answers for the questions about her faith that she suspects she will face for a lifetime.
"Who knew it would never be filled"
Farqad is splayed across a sofa, fighting ninjas on his handheld gaming system. His mother and sister leaf through an old pink scrapbook, the one Ashrafi started when she began her life with Chowdhury.
The first pages, slightly yellowed, are a celebration of their wedding. Floral stickers frame a large picture taken during the ceremony.
She was so young, just shy of 20, when she met him that day.
She flips ahead to a page marking six months after their marriage, when she joined him in New York. A snapshot captures their first date in the big city. Her husband, who loved cars, took her to an auto show.
"How romantic!" Fahina said with a laugh, rolling her dark eyes.
Other pages mark their first anniversary. Ashrafi poses with her newborn daughter, and Chowdhury proudly holds his little girl.
Ashrafi turns toward the back of the book. The pages are blank. This is where she would have illustrated their "happily ever after," she says, the days when she and her husband would have celebrated the completion of their family with their newborn son.
"Who knew it would never be filled," she said quietly.
Hearing her words, Fahina cries again -- for what her mother lost, what she lost and what her brother never knew.


Boblw60 Why is this story here? Because it's a story about irrational prejudice in a nation that prides itself on being a tolerant, pluralistic nation.

Mcwhiteys Next CNN will try making us see eye to eye with Warren Jeffs cult.

stonecrow Only half are smarter than that Impartial71. Only half.


Impartial71 No, because the story here is a clever PR exercise - humanizing the face of a demonic cult to make it more palatable to the American public. I am sure the CNN readers are smarter than that! Boblw60, hint: think wider


Devonator
Kind of hard to feel a whole lot of sympathy considering it was Islam that inspired the vile 9-11 attack....Islam is the problem...whilst their are decent peaceful muslims, Islam is evil and violent to its core...of course dhimmi liberals are too brainwashed to know other wise and Muslims will never admit how brutal muhammed really was....just read the Quran and study the Sunnah folks...all the evil is there...


Galaor55
It is pitiful to read islamists'/Muslims entries and see how they enjoy and delight themselves in making Islam and trhemselves the largest and the most dangerous nuisance to the world. They seem to be in a mental world of their own. They need to be deprogrammed and debriefed from Islam. They seem to act like zombies unable to think for themselves.

coachL
I believe CNN is out of line printing this story at this time of the year. I feel great sorrow for all that lost loved ones and relatives in the assault of the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. CNN should have brought this story out 10 years ago when it could have been lumped in with the rest of the non-muslim stories. In 12 days it will be 9/11 once again and those that died in vain should be honored by the World. So CNN, don't simply bring up a Muslim that was killed but publish the entire list again so nobody will be left out. Something just don't feel right about your article.


Devonator They certainly do have an agenda to protect evil Islam.....and it isn't even subtle...of course this will bring out the equally vile liberals that will weep over this sob story....they havn't met an islamic terrorist they havn't defended...morons that they are!

Reallyyyyyyy No quarter for Muslims until they rid their ranks of the extremists, renounce Sharia law, and prove they can act as civilized human beings.


AdamUSA People that gained from 9/11: Jews!

leadbelly66
The Muslims that perpetrated 9/11 were only following core tenets of their faith. One need only look to the violent, anti-Semitic commentary from Muslim apologists here to grasp how toxic the ideology and it's adherents are. Rational, enlightened and freedom-loving people need to wake up and see Islam as no different than other violent supremacist ideologies like Nazism or Stalinism. Instead, well-intended and tolerant people are blinded by multi-cultural dogma which irrationally provides a free pass to Islam in ways they won't even extend to non-violent groups like the Tea Party.

Hate for the day and probably the month.

Crime & Courts
Family Files Lawsuit Over Alleged Mississippi Hate Crime
Published September 06, 2011

The family of a black man who died after he was beaten and run over by a truck in Mississippi has filed a wrongful death lawsuit over the alleged hate crime.
The complaint, obtained by Fox News, was filed Tuesday in Hinds County Circuit Court. It accuses seven white teenagers of setting out on June 26 in search of a black man to harass.
One defendant named in the lawsuit, Deryl Dedmon, is charged with capital murder and robbery in the death of 49-year-old James Craig Anderson, who was killed June 26 in a motel parking lot in Jackson.
According to the complaint, the suspects deliberately set out to harm black people, who they described using racial epithets. During the assault on Anderson, one of the attackers shouted, “White power!,” the lawsuit claims.
Authorities say Dedmon then intentionally ran over Anderson with a Ford F-250 pickup truck.
Dedmon was scheduled for a preliminary hearing Tuesday on the criminal charges.
Another defendant in the lawsuit, John Aaron Rice, is charged with assault in the case.
Their attorneys deny they were involved in a racially motivated attack.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.


http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/09/06/family-files-lawsuit-over-alleged-mississippi-hate-crime/?test=latestnews#content



chepburn77 3 minutes ago
If they shouted "ATHEIST POWER!" and went looking for a Christian to harass, I wonder if your reaction would be different? Why do you feel the need to stand up for these murderers??


wedontcall911 13 minutes ago
They are after money you libtard slugs! Thus, the hate crime card! What a crock, but what would you expect from a bunch of pavement apes?


ace00allendupre 38 minutes ago
I refuse to comment on this, because racism is a crime ... and crime if for b l a c k people .


skip_it_at_yahoo_ 40 minutes ago
w t h---why is it always a hate crime when nigs are killed by whtes but not when the tables are turned? like the murder of the two whte young people who were raped and murdered by b- thugs in Knoxville tn a few years ago? -


Jess 45 minutes ago
JUST THROW THE TWO WHITE TEENS TO THE GENERAL B LACK POPULATION IN THAT JAIL....!! ...END OF THE PROBLEM. THEY WILL GET B LACK C@CK$ 24-7...!! ENJOY IT.



labec 50 minutes ago
If it is a Flash Mob of bl acks attacking whites, the DOJ will defend them.



Diversity = Perversity 2 hours ago
Nah. Had nothing to do with race. Just a good ol' boy.. just a-havin' fun.



marc.matthews 2 hours ago
Hate crime legislation is unconstitutional.

It puts one set of peoples rights above another.

All crimes are crimes of some sort of hatred.

If you are guilty then so be it, let the same laws apply to all.


navyman80 3 hours ago in reply to wolf7
same with Gays and M u s l i m s. All " special " classes


navyman80 3 hours ago in reply to wolf7
self identity is great as long as you aren't white.

Only culture in the world not allowed to practice or celebrate their history


russell46 2 hours ago in reply to navyman80
aint that the truth whites ought tob itch about quanzza

Here we go.

Colorado School Comes Under Fire for Hanging Saudi Flag Higher Than American Flag

Published September 05, 2011
| FoxNews.com

An elementary school in Colorado has come under criticism after they lowered the American flag and elevated a Saudi Arabian flag.

The principal at Bauder Elementary School in Fort Collins said they did not mean to disrespect the American flag, according to a report in the Greeley Gazzette.

Principal Brian Carpenter told the newspaper that the American flag was immediately returned to its proper and prominent position at the school.

He explained that other flags are posted around the school to recognize the nationalities of students from other countries.

A photograph showing the raised Saudi flag alongside the lowered American flag was first posted on the Greeley Report, a local blog. It generated lots of local debate.

“We realize this is an extremely sensitive time with us getting close to the 10th anniversary of 9/11," Carpenter told the Gazzette.

"There is an increased amount of alertness and sensitivity, but if someone is concerned about something to do with our flag I will settle the issue right away.”


http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/09/05/colorado-school-comes-under-fire-for-hanging-saudi-flag-higher-than-american/#content



The picture was not included with the Fox News story and if it were. I think it would have cleared up the issue. You can see the flag post is clearly broken and no sinister attempt at disgracing the US Flag was at work.

This story,like many others on the Fox News site and other sites,has one purpose in mind. That purpose it to inflame the readers. They add a message board to stories like this one and the end result is huge numbers of web hits, which we know will increase the money they can charge their advertisers. That is fine and obviously makes these websites a lot of money, but with that should come some responsibility to what is posted on their message boards in reply to these stories.

Most major websites now use a service called Disqus. It's a filtering software among other things and these websites use it to"moderate" their sites, so they don't have to pay live humans to do it for them. The problem is the software is easy to beat and most of the posters know this and routinely post obscenities and racist over the top comments.

As you will see with this story and others. It's the wild west on these boards. Anything goes and no one seems to care. Can you imagine if CNN Or Fox News allowed this sort of behavior on their broadcast stations? So you have to wonder why they allow it to continue on their websites. Has money become that important?

In the future I will post the story and the comments that follow. I thought in this first story I would post a little explanation as to what was going on, So lets see what the posters had to say on this story.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

nonyabusiness

Do not feel sorry for Colorado, they act like the victims, all along they're the perpetrators.



zzgomer

What in th f u ck is wrong with CO! time to bring them back in line! id i ot s!



ray33 in reply to topoftherock

hang the principal by his "gonads" with piano wire



ghosthunter2

Obama leads from behind. Behind the moos-lims a zz's as he sticks his nose between their stinky buns


rukidding86

Isn't that the same Saudi Arabia that sent us the/ter/rorists on 9/11 ?


averagejack

Hang any others countries' flag on a wall, not on a flagpole. It is still respectful. How dumb does a principal have to be to not know basic citizenry associated with our own customs and courtesies? Let's see his education transcripts. What an embarassment.
pzzdnga 0 minutes ago


Sorry you feel that way...so why don't you just sign up for citizenship in another country that is more to your lower, disrespectful standards. It's your apathetic attitude that allows the rest of us to lose our freedoms one by one. This IS an issue...one of disrespect, lack of etiquette, and another example "progressive education" only teaching what works for the socialists...and BTW...it's the "teabagger" values that allows you to spout your bs freely, if not ignorantly on this public forum.


astrummagister

This is nothing more than a case of good initiative, bad judgement. Move along people, move along.


sidetracksusie

ABSOLUTELY no flag except an AMERICAN flag and a state flag should EVER be displayed or flown at ANY public school or institution. NONE!


inguy23

What the freak!


estibaliz

All the libs should be deported to countries where the illegal immigrants and terrorists come from.


trbl4disqus

Hey COLORADO and CARPENTER... we DO NOT HONOR other flags in this country. Other countries DO NOT HONOR the American flag - - - in fact, MANY BURN IT !!

"“We realize this is an extremely sensitive time with us getting close to the 10th anniversary of 9/11. There is an increased amount of alertness and sensitivity, but if someone is "concerned" about something to do with our flag
I will settle the issue right away.” BS !

You forget Carpenter - - - it was UBL and his mooselim terrorists who were responsible for the deaths of over 3,000 people on AMERICAN SOIL.

UBL was a SAUDI citizen !!!! Get those DAM FLAGS DOWN !!!



iramo chen in reply to trbl4disqus


Yes. Let's be more like Saudi Arabia.


AFONTANA58

This is the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, not Saudi Arabia, France, or any
other gdam country. OUR FLAG is the only flag that must fly, and I
don't give a flying sh it what nation is 'OFFENDED'. If you don't like
it, get the he ll out of here and go back to your backwards desert
jockey country and eat camels for dinner, i'll buy your tickets back
one way.


jskornick

I thought there was a separation of church and state. Saudi Arabia is clearly a religious empire therefore flying that flag at a public school should be illegal and considered imposing a religious faith on others. Or is that something that only applies to Christians.


The_Fast_and_Furious_Gunrunner

Liberals, why does being unpatriotic come so easily to you?



rockafeller24

Thats what you get when you elect a professional flag-burner into WH



almightygod

Maybe the principal would also like the Saudi flag draped over his pine box.