The country has just come off another heightened state of alert. The loudest sigh of relief was from the American Muslims. Every time the alert level goes up, along with the fears of the next terrorist attacks, the American Muslims had to fear an increase in hate crimes against them. During the recent alert, a Muslim child and teenager were attacked in Pennsylvania and a Sikh man, mistaken for a Muslim, was shot in Arizona. Ann Coulter called for a Muslim-free air travel and Cal Thomas warned about Muslim political activism and these two media personalities were not alone in causing distress to the Muslims.

The anxiety levels rise and fall in synchronization with the level of alert. It is this never ending roller-coaster ride that seems to be taking a heavy toll on Muslims. Two weeks ago, in the midst of the state of high alert, my brother-in-law called my children, saying that he had three free tickets for the Mets game that evening. My son and middle daughter jumped at this chance.

They were all ready to leave when my wife and I arrived home that evening. We were aghast. With her hijab (headscarf), our daughter is easily identifiable as Muslim. To send her into the charged atmosphere of a ballpark was out of the question. My daughter, the most athletic member of our family, tried arguments like, "Mom, I am bigger than my brother," or, "But dad, there are lot of policemen in there." But nothing would sway us. My son went with his uncle, and my daughter sulked for days.

The last twenty months have been a very stressful time for all Americans but more so for the Muslim Americans. Some mothers pulled their sons out of Little League after Sept. 11, hearing of unrelated reports of mistreatment in the schools, never to send them back. Muslim riders on Long Island trains admit to becoming extra cautious every time the headlines in the city tabloids that their fellow travelers read, get shriller.

Our rampant fears are already inflicting far-reaching psychosocial trauma on our children. They are just as fearful as we are. We hear it in their questions. The younger ones ask, "Will there be more wars?" or "Why is the president not saying sorry when children in Iraq are killed?" or "What do 'towel head' and 'camel jockey' mean?" And many older ones have exhibited clear signs of stress, like falling grades and behavioral and mood problems.

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The paranoia many of us feel even consumes our social gatherings. At parties and other events that are supposed to be joyful, stories are told and stories are retold of harassment of women drivers, of arrests and deportations, of families losing homes and becoming destitute, of expecting mothers separated from husbands who are jailed for technicalities or minor immigration infarctions, of families returning to their countries of origin, causing great distress to their American-born children.

As expected, along with the discussion of the terrorist incidents, the blame game is also played. Osama and Al-Qaeda get the major share of the blame followed closely by the neo-conservative and Israeli supporters for trying to use the terrorism fears to politically marginalize the American Muslims. The media, especially the right wing media institutions and commentators, get their fair share too. The missing element in this appropriation of blame is
the Muslim leadership, that has been insular, disunited and more reactive than proactive. It gets the blame but not as much as it should.

Before September 11th Muslim leadership was trying to leap frog into position to claim their proportionate share of political power. They thought that the way to do so was by stressing the rising Muslim population figures and giving political donations. They did this even as most mosques, even in large Muslim communities around the nation, have no well-established self help programs such as legal aid for their members, nor projects such as soup kitchens to serve poor or needy fellow citizens.

September 11th pulled the rug from under this strategy. Very few politicians are now willing to openly court the Muslim vote or money. Had the Muslim leadership done things differently - paid as much attention to domestic issues as it did to concerns overseas, built alliances with other immigrants, stood up for the economically downtrodden as our religion teaches - we would have far more support from other segments of society.