Mike Salsbury/The Olympian
Zahid Shariff, a professor at The Evergreen State College, is Muslim, and his family lives in Pakistan. Like many others, he has been keeping a close watch on news events since the Sept. 11 attacks.

Muslim professor fears lengthy war

Evergreen faculty member sees no hassles in Olympia

LORRINE THOMPSON, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published Sunday, March 10, 2002

OLYMPIA -- For all the bombs that dropped on Afghanistan, Zahid Shariff finds that he's more concerned about the words being dropped in the wake of Sept. 11.

"I have a concern about the continuing rhetoric that this is just the beginning, it is not the end. That frightens me," said Shariff, the director of the graduate program in public administration for The Evergreen State College.

With many family members who are Muslim still living in Pakistan, Shariff worries that the war will spread and the conflict will continue.

U.S. officials have recently been using the term "axis of evil" when referring to terrorist strongholds in central Asia and the Middle East. Such "ratcheting up of rhetoric" does not help to resolve the conflict and reflects on an entire region, Shariff said.

"I really think that one has to be very careful with one's words," he said.

Concerned with trend

There were other words spoken after Sept. 11 that Shariff and his family members hope are still true: President Bush and other U.S. leaders promised that the war had nothing to do with attacking Muslims.

But Shariff and his family -- two brothers and three sisters in Pakistan and their children -- see a trend that speaks otherwise.

When Hindu fundamentalists attack Muslims in India, "American condemnation of it is very mild, or not there at all," Shariff said. Hundreds of Muslims have been killed in India, he said.

However, the actions of Muslim fundamentalists draw swift attention and condemnation, he said. In hotspots around the world, he said, "Muslims are on one side, and the U.S. is invariably on the other."

That attitude seems to lead to the United States favoring India over Pakistan in foreign affairs, regardless of how strongly the Pakistani government supports the United States, Shariff said.

'A fine community'

But the professor is happy that the atmosphere in Olympia has remained peaceful toward Muslims and central Asians.

Although he received several harassing anonymous phone calls a few months ago, he has not been subjected to further negative treatment in the community.

"I'm very happy to say that that has been no problem," he said. "Olympia is a fine community, I must say. I am very happy to live here."

On the military front, Shariff said he has been surprised at how little resistance Taliban fighters have put up, and at the precision and power of U.S. military technology.

"It makes me more afraid of military might," he said. "I hope we use it carefully."

He also hopes it won't have to be used much longer in central Asia.

"I'm hoping that the use of the military will stop, and peace will be re-established."

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