On October 21, 2001, The Lowell Sun published an article by Jesse Heines under the title of A Muslim, a Jew, and a Surprise. This article was about Jesse’s interaction with a Pakistani student named Nadeem Chaudry, with whom Jesse had lost touch over the years since Nadeem had been a student at UMass Lowell. Nadeem’s uncle saw the article in the Lowell paper and sent it to Nadeem, who then sent Jesse the following e-mail.
November 18, 2001
Hi Jesse,
How are you? Considering what is going on in the world I am fine. I wanted to write to you for quite a while but did not know what to write. Then my uncle told me that you had written an article in a local daily that mentioned me. That kind of motivated me to write to you.
The theme of this letter is “What goes around, comes around.” You, a Jew, helped me, a Muslim, greatly when I started off as a computer science undergrad at UMass Lowell. You as a professor got paid from the university and I as a student paid the tuition, but you helped me beyond what was merely required of you and for that I am forever indebted to you.
Now take a wild guess as to what I did from September 2000 to November 2001... I taught computer science to about 40 Orthodox Jews in New York City about two blocks away from World Trade Center!
Now coming back to September 11. What I saw there I had never seen before in my life and don’t want to see again. I saw people jump from floors hundreds of feet up. I can still see them falling in slow motion in my mind. It was horrible. It was an evil act.
What the U.S. is doing in Afghanistan now is also evil. You probably won’t see it that way, but I see a parallel between now and Egypt at the time of the prophet Moses.
The Pharaoh was the ruler of the superpower of the time and the people of Israel (bani-Israel as they are called in Quran) were the weakest people at the time. He killed their male children but the Jews were helpless until the prophet Moses came. When Moses showed the Pharaoh signs of God (Allah), the Pharaoh and his associates refused to admit that they were signs of Allah and tried to explain them all away. When their food stuffs were attacked by bugs, they said the same thing had happened before, so it was no big deal. And so forth and so on.
I see a parallel here with the airbus that fell near JFK airport. I am sure the folks at NTSB will discover a logical reason for why it fell. You know, the wake of another plane, a bird in the engine intake, a hair-line crack, etc. But my feeling is that something much bigger is going on.
We are all children of God and equal in that respect. Our sins against Him (such as being atheist, polytheist, etc.) are sins against Him, and He will judge us for those when we die. He can forgive us or punish us for those sins.
But our sins against fellow human beings will not be forgiven by Him. You as a father don’t differentiate between your sons. If the older one beats the younger one, you protect the younger one. If the younger one misbehaves you punish him separately for that, but you don’t let the powerful have free reign so that he may do whatever he wants to with the younger one.
I left US on November 3rd and I am now in Pakistan. The US is not what it used be for me. It has all changed now. Previously I was not afraid of police in US, but now I am because I could be pulled over just because of my appearance. Previously, a few times cops pulled me over it was always because I was speeding. I never contested my tickets because the cops were correct in ticketing me and I have no complaint about it.
I guess I have rattled on long enough now, so I had better stop here. Please say hi to the rest of the faculty on my behalf, especially to Bill Moloney, Stu Smith, John Seig, Charlie Steele, David Pitts, James Canning, Ray Gumb, and Jerry Pocock.
-- Nadeem