Source: The National
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20080625/PAGETHREE/913497177/1119
Imran Hafiz was in Grade 4 when the World Trade Center came crashing down on September 11 at the hands of al Qa’eda. Soon afterwards, some children at his Arizona school shunned him on the playground, and he asked why.
“Because you’re a Taliban,” they said.
“No, I’m not,” he replied.
“How do you know?”
Trying to convince his peers that being a Muslim did not mean he was a terrorist was an early exercise in what Imran, now 16, and his sister Yasmine, 18, have since done more formally in a book: trying to dispel misconceptions about a faith they say was effectively “hijacked”, along with the commercial airliners that brought down the Twin Towers, by Osama bin Laden.
The American Muslim Teenager’s Handbook – written with Dilara Hafiz, their mother – is a resource guide for young Muslims and anyone else who wants to know more about arguably the most misunderstood religion in the United States.