Word: zarzour
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...Universal takes pride in the fact that it is a model Islamic school. "Being a Muslim is synonymous with excellence in every area," its parent-and-student handbook says. Day-to-day life as a model student, however, has been an "edgier" balancing act ever since 9/11, says Zarzour. "Our acceptance as Americans is on far shakier ground." Last year, after a student's picture appeared in a local newspaper as the winner of a regional spelling bee, the school received a series of bomb threats. Meanwhile, from inside the box looking out, fear and anger have grown among many...
...schools. The Islamic students faced discrimination as well, to which they responded with a different but just as American idea: forming gangs. "Tap boys," they were called, which stood for Tall Arab Posses. "The parents realized their children were drifting from what was holy and valuable to them," says Zarzour. "They were getting involved with everything from drugs to Halloween...
...doors in 1990. Since then it has become a fully accredited institution, with 95% of its graduates going on to college. The growing sense of harmony was abruptly reversed on the morning of 9/11. After a frightened parent called the school, a classroom TV was wheeled into vice chairman Zarzour's office, where he watched the second plane hit the World Trade Center. "As soon as the terrorism speculation started," says Zarzour, "the parents came and took their kids home. The head of the FBI came out from Chicago. The mayor and police chief of Bridgeview stopped by. After...
...Prompted by anti-Muslim demonstrators marching toward Bridgeview from a neighboring suburb, local police secured the area around the school and the mosque next door, manning the barricades for three days. "That day changed my life," says Zarzour, an immigrant from Syria. "Up until that time, Arab-American Muslims were the new kids on the block, going through the same adjustment as the Jews, the Irish and the Hispanics before us. A little discrimination was part of the process of integration. Now people don't think there is any such thing as a good Muslim...
...Vice chairman Zarzour has become more hopeful as time has passed since 9/11, believing that "it will be harder and take longer, but integration is possible. Unless ..." He trails off, reluctant to say what he fears: unless there is another attack on the U.S. "What will happen to us and our children?" he asks. "Internment...