Interview: Dr. Shaheen Ahmed

May 23, 2003

Source: Kansas City Jewish Chronicle

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=8104341&BRD=1425&PAG=461&dept_id=154733&rfi=6

On May 23, 2003 Kansas City Jewish Chronicle published an interview with Dr. Shaheen Ahmed regarding Muslim Americans. He stated "my husband and I invited Jewish families into my home for dinner. We decided we wanted to meet the Jewish people. They were wonderful. I met so many nice people. We did connect, and we did make some good local connections. I think we need to do more of that. Everybody looks at Muslims as only Arabs and only the Palestinian issue. They don't go beyond that. They don't think or see that there are so many different Muslims here... With dialogue comes better understanding. We have to first look at ourselves as Americans. Religion comes next. The first thing is that we are all human beings. Because of Sept. 11, 2001, Islam has gone back 50 years. It was doing really well before all this stuff happened."