Tuesday, October 9, 2001

Boise Afghans support U.S. Even if it means losing relatives

By Tim Woodward The Idaho Statesman

Afghans living in Boise said Monday they support the American and British airstrikes against the Taliban, even if it means losing loved ones in their homeland.

Ahmad Yama Shefa and his family left Afghanistan because of the Taliban. He has lived in Boise for 14 months. His grandfather and an uncle are still in Kabul, Afghanistan's capital.

"I don't want them to die, but it's good that the U.S. is doing this," he said. "It's better for the future of Afghanistan. It's better to have a few people die in a short period of time and bring peace than having 100 people a day dying for a long time of hunger and disease."

It's been a week since he heard from relatives in Afghanistan.

"We can't call them; they have to call us. My grandfather called last week and said no one in Afghanistan knew what would happen in the next minute. The Taliban comes into houses looking for young men and forcing them to join the militia."

Ali and Fahima Temory fled Taliban rule in Afghanistan 10 months ago, going first to Pakistan and then the United States. They've been in Boise a month. As Muslims, they resent the Taliban's association with Islam.

"They're not Islam; they're terrorists," Ali Temory said through an interpreter.

Like Shefa, they still have relatives in Afghanistan.

"I'm afraid for them," Fahima Temory said, "but if the U.S. takes the Taliban out of the country and brings Osama bin Laden to justice, it's OK if we lose one or two members of our family."

"If I lose some relatives or friends and after that the country becomes at peace, it will be a good thing," her husband added. "It's not only my family I should worry about. It's millions of people living in my country."

He worries about the possibility of terrorist reprisals. "The U.S. has tight security, but it could happen," he said. "Everybody's afraid of a wild animal."

Yasmin Aguilar left Afghanistan for Pakistan in 1992 and has lived in Boise a year. A medical doctor, she works at the Agency for New Americans.

"The Taliban is the reason I am here," she said. "In Afghanistan, there are no rights for women. We're not allowed to work, not allowed to get an education. I got my medical training in the Czech Republic."

-- Anonymous, October 09, 2001

Answers

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/282/region/Maine_s_Afghan_community_su ppo:.shtml

Maine's Afghan community supports air strikes

By Associated Press, 10/9/2001 09:24

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) Members of Maine's Afghan community support the U.S. air strikes in their former homeland, saying Osama bin Laden must be stopped from wreaking chaos and destruction around the world.

''I support the U.S. decision,'' said Mohammad Muti, president of the Afghan Association of Maine. ''If (Osama bin Laden) is not stopped, he might cause problems everywhere. He should be stopped.''

Muti, a Muslim, said the 190 or so Afghans living in Maine do not support bin Laden or the Taliban regime.

''They don't like Osama or the Taliban,'' he said. ''They are modern people.''

In Afghanistan, Muti lived in Kabul, where he was a technology teacher who attended college in America. He fled with his family in 1986 during the war with the Soviet Union and lived in Pakistan for five years. In 1991, he was granted political asylum and came to Portland as a refugee.

Muti, now an American citizen, has not been back to Afghanistan since then.

Muti said global intervention is the only way his homeland will ever be rebuilt.

''The reality is, even in Muslim countries, (bin Laden) is not supported,'' Muti said. ''If the whole world is against bin Laden, we have hope for a peaceful life.''

Muti's youngest daughter, 24-year-old Friba, said her non-Afghan friends have been supportive during the past few weeks. ''They are giving me a hug, giving me a call,'' she said.

But she knows that as America goes to war, not all Afghans in Maine feel as welcome as she does.

In Old Orchard Beach, Wazma Nasr is polite when customers tell her to get out of their country and go home to Afghanistan.

Headlights in one of her family's cars were shattered, and a second car was damaged. A window was shattered at Neighbors Market on Washington Avenue, which Nasr runs.

On Sept. 11, friends called and advised her to close her store early. She did, and picked up her children from school.

Four drunken men appeared at her home after midnight, and accused her and her husband, Bahyzet, of helping to carry out the terror attacks on America.

When the men left, the couple called police.

She phoned the police again last Saturday, when vandals broke a window at the entrance to her store. Despite problems and ongoing vandalism, Nasr said, most customers check on her welfare and even leave home phone numbers to call in case of trouble.

Despite the harassment and the insults, Nasr is proud to be American. ''They slap their own face if they try to do something to me. I belong to this country. We share the same country now,'' she said.

-- Anonymous, October 09, 2001