Talk about a swift response. According to police reports, at 8:05 a.m. on September 11, less than an hour after Seattleites woke to news that the World Trade Center's twin towers had been toppled in Manhattan, the first of three harassing phone calls came into a Seattle cab company. "Tell your Muslim drivers not to drive today," an unknown suspect told the dispatcher. That call was followed at 8:15 a.m. with a similar threat. And then, at 9:00 a.m.: "We are going to kill your momma."
The manager of the taxi dispatch center told police that he was "afraid that the threats would be carried out, and was very concerned for [his] and [his] employees' safety."
The outpouring from Seattleites continued. According to police reports, the principal at the Islamic School of Seattle on 25th Avenue and Cherry Street in the Central Area called 911 after listening to her phone messages. At noon, a man left the following message: "I hope you Islamic cocksuckers are happy. It ain't over till it's over. You cocksuckers. You're gonna go down eventually. Teach that to your kids. You think you got America down, but you don't."
The threats against Arabs continued late into the night. Police reports show that between 9:30 and 10:30 p.m., a dispatcher for Farwest Taxi got three bruising telephone calls. The first call was from an angry male, who said: "I need a raghead right now!" The second call came from a female, who stated that she didn't want any Arabs or "towelheads" picking her up, because "they just blew us up." A third and final call came from a "drunken-sounding male." He told the dispatcher that he wanted a cab, but not to send him a "camel jockey."
The dispatch supervisor told reporting officers that he "fears for the safety of the Farwest cab drivers"--a fear substantiated by the events of September 13, when an armed man showed up at the Islamic Idriss Mosque in North Seattle. He dumped gasoline on two cars, fired a shot into the ground, and crashed his car into a utility pole before being arrested. This followed an act of vandalism Tuesday morning in Lynnwood, where black paint was splattered on the sign in front of the Dar Al-Arqam mosque.
With the start of the new week, on Monday, September 17, taxi cabs line the block in front of Union Square in downtown Seattle. Some cab drivers are standing on the sidewalk chatting. Others hold newspapers with headlines that read "war" and "evil."
A man with a burgundy turban sits behind the wheel in a Northwest Taxi cab. A local newspaper lays folded in his lap. His salt-and-pepper beard rests near the second button on his collared shirt. He is of the Sikh faith--which is based in India. Many people, he says, associate his appearance with the terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden.
He wishes to remain anonymous. Business has not been normal. "Some people have jumped out of my car," he says. "Perhaps it's because of my turban." He has begun to carry pamphlets issued by the Sikh Foundation, Inc., which contain an official statement condemning the attack on America.
Amy Baranski contributed to this report.
