Like many restaurant owners, Aimer Shtaya knows most of the customers who eat at his restaurant by name.
For the last three years, Shtaya’s Morocco Café, specializing in African and Middle Eastern cuisine, has been quietly flourishing, tucked away on the corner of Echles and Southern, a block away from The University of Memphis. The bustling café has always enjoyed a busy and friendly existence.
That is, until the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 changed all that.
Shtaya, a practicing Muslim from Jerusalem, closed his restaurant for two days after the attacks out of sadness for the victims.
“It broke my heart to hear the news,” Shtaya said. “How could I be happy, or keep my business open?”
Unfortunately, Shtaya’s concerns only got worse once his restaurant reopened. He has been threatened to the point that he says he just doesn’t care anymore.
“People drive by my restaurant now and scream at the customers,” Shtaya said. “They call me to tell me they will kill me.” In addition to the verbal assaults, Shtaya’s restaurant was vandalized. Racial slurs and pictures of male genitalia were drawn on the walls.
Shtaya is not alone. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, U.S. officials are responding to a wave of anti-Islamic sentiment.
FBI Chief Robert Mueller announced on Sept. 24 that officials are investigating some 40 suspected hate crimes directed against Arab-Americans following the attacks.
“Until this happened, we have never had any problems of any kind at the restaurant,” Shtaya said.
Little by little, that began to change.
Shtaya was called by police to his restaurant in the early morning hours on Sept. 14 because the alarm had been triggered.
“I went to the store to turn it off and waited for an hour or two to make sure everything was OK,” he said. “Almost as soon as I returned home, the police called and said someone was already trying to break in again, and the alarm was again going off. I was so tired I told them I didn’t care.”
Other Middle Eastearners in Memphis also have been targeted.
Shtaya said that several of his friends who drive taxis in Memphis have been attacked by their customers.
Others, like Abdur Rhman, a member of the Muslim Society of Memphis, have experienced threats even more extreme.
“Our temple has received several death threats,” Rhman said. “It amounts to nothing more than racial profiling,” he said, comparing the backlash against Arab-Americans to the treatment of the Japanese in the United States during World War II.
The New York Times reported that President Bush visited the Islamic Center in Washington D.C. on Sept. 18.
“Those who feel like they can intimidate our fellow citizens and take out their anger don’t represent the best of America,” Bush said. “They represent the worst of humankind, and they should be ashamed of that kind of behavior.”
Near the end of his visit, Bush quoted the book of the Islamic faith. “In the long run, evil in the extreme will be the end of those who do evil.”
Despite the harassment, Shtaya says he will not close his business.
“There is no way I would leave or move my business,” he said. “I love my country very much.”
Already he has received almost 100 letters from people who apologize for the threats and the abuse he has suffered.
Some have even sent flowers to his restaurant.
Shtaya said the worst of the abuse has passed, but he still receives threats from time to time.
“I just want it to stop completely,” Shtaya said, matter-of-factly. “I had nothing to do with the people who committed these horrible crimes.”
