Layla El-Wafi decided to keep wearing the headscarf used by Muslim women despite the "dirty remarks and dirty looks" from strangers.
She also wears an American flag pin -- partly to show solidarity, but partly as a defensive measure: In the new war on terrorism, this city of immigrants has become a place where some fear losing the very thing many came here for.
"I don't want to feel that I can't have the kind of freedom of expression we guarantee to everyone," said El-Wafi, whose family begged her to modify her appearance.
"I'm proud to be an American," she said. "I hate to feel that people are counting me as `the other.'"
Across the country, reports of bias incidents against people who appear to be Middle Eastern have risen since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, despite appeals for tolerance from President George W. Bush and other top US officials.
Police reports of bias incidents since the attacks number in the dozens -- from anti-Muslim graffiti to a baseball-bat assault on a turban-wearing Sikh.
The backlash is mild compared to two killings, in Texas and Arizona, that may have been motivated by anti-Arab sentiment.
But Sikhs, Muslims, and other immigrants say they are greatly affected by increasing harassment.
"My business is down 60 to 70 percent," said Izmar Yalai, who runs the Afghanistan Kebab House in Manhattan. "They stand outside and look. And then they just walk away. I know they have anger and resentment. But we are as much American as any of them! We've been here 20 years. We are part of the American economy. We pay taxes and provide jobs."
Amrik Singh Chawla, a financial consultant who is Sikh, was headed to the Trade Center to catch a train when he saw the second hijacked plane hit the building. Chawla ran for his life, dodging debris falling from the sky.
Amid the chaos, two men chased him, calling him a terrorist and demanding that he remove his turban. He got away, but said he has been harassed on other days as well.
Chawla, who was born in India, has continued to wear his turban. To abandon his identity out of fear, he said, would be to capitulate to the terrorists and renounce the freedoms the US stands for.
"When times are tough, you don't give up and run," he said.
Akbar Himanii, a Muslim from India and US citizen who has been here for 20 years, owned a cafe in the Trade Center and feels fortunate that all his employees escaped unharmed. Himanii said he has been cursed at by strangers because of the way he looks. Still, Himanii said he has received 1,200 calls from people who heard his cafe was destroyed and want to make sure he gets government assistance.
Chawla, too, said friends, neighbors and co-workers "have sent me e-mails and called to say, `We hope you're OK.' I feel a sense of warmth around me." But, he added, "I'm also not foolish. I foresee that for the next one to even five years, times are going to be difficult for Americans of Asian descent."
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