By ALAN PERROTT and BRIDGET CARTER
While the world nervously awaits the consequences of the suicide attacks on the United States, Auckland's Muslim community is keeping its head down and getting on with life.
Among this small group are the owners and staff of a collection of Muslim-owned shops in Sandringham Rd.
They are understandably nervous about publicly discussing the issues behind terrorists such as Osama bin Laden for fear of a backlash from the ignorant.
In Otahuhu several turban-wearing, bearded Sikhs have been attacked by thugs who thought they were Muslims.
Most Muslims approached by the Herald refused to comment and quickly walked away, but the few who spoke out told a common story.
Everyone, they said, was shocked and angered by the actions of the suicide bombers and were ashamed of sharing a similar religious background with them.
As one man said: "People now look at us differently."
But once you get beneath this reaction, they share another common thought - Americans must stop to consider why so many people are willing to sacrifice their lives to attack them.
One Syrian shopworker, Mohammad, summed it up: "America is a very powerful country, but they must treat all people the same way. They do not treat Muslims and Arabs well."
Nasir Baieg, who moved to Auckland from Karachi six years ago, believes America is right to seek revenge, but knows many in Pakistan do not share that view.
"The Islamic parties in Pakistan are very strong."
Many wanted Pakistan to remain neutral, but he hoped its Government would continue to support America. In return, he hoped sanctions would be lifted, giving a lift to Pakistan's damaged economy.
He was concerned that with five million Afghans in Pakistan, many of them supporters of Osama bin Laden, there would be civil unrest and the Government could be overthrown.
The president of the New Zealand Pakistani Association, Abdul Aziz Qazi, said feeling in the community was divided.
Most of New Zealand's 3000 Pakistanis were unhappy about what had happened in America, but they were concerned that the West might consider itself at war with all Islamic people, not just terrorism or Afghanistan.
Unfortunately, his nervousness is well founded. Reports are coming in from around the world of assaults on Muslims and even Sikhs.
Muslim women living in Australia are being warned to keep off the streets because of the number of revenge assaults.
Calls have flooded into a 24-hour hotline set up by the Community Relations Commission.
One woman in Perth had a molotov cocktail thrown at her, others have complained of assaults and verbal abuse in schools and streets. Arab buildings have been petrol-bombed and defaced.
In the United States, President Bush took time from dealing with the terrorist action to visit the Islamic Centre of Washington in an effort to discourage racist attacks.
A Pakistani Muslim shopowner was shot dead in Dallas at the weekend, a 49-year-old Sikh man was killed in a drive-by shooting in Arizona, and the Council of American-Islamic Relations has received about 400 complaints of attacks. The FBI is investigating 40 anti-Muslim hate crimes.
Attacks in Britain include the beating of a 19-year-old Muslim woman by two men with bats in Swindon, a Muslim taxi driver left paralysed from the neck down after an attack in Twickenham, and an Afghan man who was hit with a bottle and kicked by three men in west London.
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Map: Opposing forces in the war against terror
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