Fearing attack's impact on image of Arabs

Mohsen Elsayed was eating dinner with the civilians and Army personnel who serve with him in Iraq when he got the horrible news.

"I was shocked to hear that the shooter is a doctor and a Muslim-American," he wrote in an e-mail Thursday after seeing the images from Fort Hood on CNN.

The notion that one soldier, charged with helping others feeling the pain of the perilous landscape of war, would instead kill them was more than he could handle.

"We are one family here," he wrote. "We sleep in the desert every night to get rid of our enemy and make sure our country is safer. We go without showers or hot meals for days, and I love every moment of it. I feel I'm giving something back to my great nation."

Elsayed is from Brentwood, but now Brentwood seems like another life. A businessman, he is now working as a civilian contractor for the Defense Department. He works beside those fighting the war in Iraq.

"I see the sadness in their eyes and I can feel their pain," Elsayed wrote in an e-mail on Friday, referring to the soldiers around him. " . . . Most of the soldiers who I work with are from Texas and came from that base. As an American, I felt so bad for the loss of our kids' lives [back at] home."

It was devastating for Elsayed to learn the suspected shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, is Muslim. "We have lots of Arab-Americans who work with me," he wrote. "We all share the pain and we know that this is a sick individual who doesn't represent our values. I don't know the shooter, but when I heard the name I knew it was an Arabic name."

Elsayed said he worries that there will be repercussions because of Hasan's actions.

"You worry about some ignorant people who stereotype and put revenge on their hands," he wrote in an e-mail. "I'm not worried about myself here. I'm [among] my family here and we have nothing but love and respect among each other."

But, he added, "I'm sure it is going to be harder for us as Arab-Americans who are working for our federal government, but I'm worried more about our own community back home. We already have a negative image after 9/11."

Elsayed, 52, who was born in Cairo and later became a U.S. citizen, has been working to change that image.

He is vice chairman of Suffolk County's Muslim advisory board and a member of the county hate crimes task force. He also is a former business owner who for three years was vice president of the Brentwood Chamber of Commerce. He ran, unsuccessfully, for Islip Town clerk in 2003. He said he intends to run for office again after he is home.

For now, however, he remains in Iraq, where he said he is grateful for the protection the soldiers provide.

"Our soldiers will give me their lives to defend me. I cannot go anywhere without them surrounding me for protection," he wrote. "They get mad at me when I go out without them to protect me. I love these soldiers and I have nothing but love and respect for them."

So much love and so much respect that on Friday he also sent off e-mails from Iraq soliciting blood donations from anyone who watched the news about Fort Hood and wanted some way to help.

"Giving blood saves people's lives," Elsayed wrote. "And especially soldiers'."