STORRS, Connecticut, Sept 22 (News Agencies) - College campuses are not immune from the misguided anti-Muslim backlash in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks, Muslim students said Saturday.
With the increasing death toll in New York from the attack on the World Trade Center, the number of hate crimes committed against Muslims has risen in direct proportion.
Many students from Gulf nations studying in U.S. are reporting feeling threatened as they are making plans to leave the country.
At the University of Connecticut, students from the Middle East complain they have been harassed several times since the attacks. Two students said that other students harassed and shouted at them in their dorms.
Shaker Haji, 25, a graduate student from Bahrain and member of the Muslim Student Association, said a female student wearing the
hijab (Islamic head covering) was yelled at just off-campus.
Things have come to such a head on campus that two undergraduate students, Ibrahim Lamansoori and Rasheed Alzabi, both from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), have already left UConn. They reportedly left at the urging of their parents and the UAE embassy.
Chris Wentzel, of the Intercultural Federation, a student organization, said one left because he felt unwelcome at UConn after he heard negative comments from students about Muslims during a discussion about Islam in a physics class.
But many students and the MSA say these kinds of incidents only represent a tiny minority of students and not the overall attitude on campus. Speaking to the
Hartford Courant, Haji said: "Most have been so nice and really understanding. Most of the students know the difference between a person who did something wrong and whole group of Muslims."
The Undergraduate Student Government of the university is planning to hold a student walk on campus to show support for international students.
Universities around the country are also organizing public meetings on their campuses to educate students about Islam and Muslims.
