By Alexander Dworkowitz
Ten days after terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center by flying two hijacked planes into its towers, Flushing residents saw an unusual sight on Union Street.
A group of nearly 100 Muslims, most of them Afghans, marched from the Hazrat-I-Abubaker Afghan mosque on 33rd Avenue to the 109th Precinct in downtown Flushing. Many of the marchers wore traditional Afghan garb and carried signs condemning terrorism, and one man waived an American flag.
“Death to bin Laden!” sang the marchers. “Death to bin Laden terrorist!”
Imam Mohammad Sherzad, the head of the Flushing mosque, was instrumental in organizing the rally. For Sherzad, the purpose was clear: to show Queens that its Afghan population was as outraged about the Sept. 11 attacks as any other group in the borough.
But while the march demonstrated unity, some members of the mosque expressed sympathy for the Taliban and chose to pray separately from Sherzad.
The march and the division in the mosque reveal the growing debate among the Afghans of Queens, the center of the Afghan population of the northeastern United States.
While much of the debate is calm, for many Afghans the discussion has brought to light old divides in the community.
“The younger Afghans don’t want much to do with the community because of the fighting,” said Jackson Heights resident Rameen Javid Moshref, referring to the debate within the Afghan community. Moshref is also editor-in-chief of the Afghan Communicator, a quarterly magazine that publishes out of Queens. “There’s a community, but there is not a real feeling of community.”
Moshref described the annual Afghan Independence Day Festival, which takes place in Kissena Park in Flushing. Every August, thousands of Afghans participate in fashion shows, tug-of-war games and other events in celebration of Afghanistan’s independence from British control in 1919.
“We want to hold a celebration that is not objectionable to any group, to different factions of the Afghan community,” said Moshref. Moshref explained that any more recent event in Afghan’s troubled and turbulent history was too controversial to celebrate.
But others do not see the Afghan community as divided.
“A lot of people say the Afghan people don’t get along,” said Haroon Anwarzai, a 33-year-old MetLife broker from Douglaston, who has helped the Afghan National Islamic Council establish an organization of Afghans to assist in rebuilding Afghanistan. “I disagree with that. There are family differences, family issues. That’s normal.”
Nevertheless, both Moshref and Anwarzai agreed that events in Afghanistan affect how members of the Queens Afghan community get along with one another.
“I think politics are the center of everything,” said Moshref.
In Queens, those politics are quite diverse. While the Afghan mosques have voiced support both for the Afghan resistance group known as the Northern Alliance and the former king of Afghanistan, there has been a small presence of Taliban supporters since the group took control of Afghanistan in 1996.
The Taliban even established a delegation on Main Street in Flushing, which was ordered closed by the State Department in February but functioned in another location even after Sept. 11.
The Taliban allowed Saudi Arabian Osama bin Laden, suspected of masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks, to run terrorist training camps in Afghanistan that have been destroyed by U.S. bombing raids. Many Queens Afghans who sympathize with the Taliban still condemn terrorism.
“The Taliban weren’t bad people,” said Imam Mohammad Yusufi, the leader of the Afghan Immigrants Islamic Center on 149th Street in Flushing. “But bin Laden tricked them.”
The 77-year-old Yusufi called terrorism a disgrace and said the murder of just one person equated to the murder of the entire world. But Yusufi blamed bin Laden, saying he used his wealth to take advantage of the Taliban.
Yusufi’s sympathy for the Taliban differs sharply from Sherzad, who spoke out against both the Taliban and Osama bin Laden during his march.
But the Taliban, fading from Queens as fast as they are fading from Afghanistan, do not constitute the only issue of debate among Queens Afghans.
The interim Afghan government took over control of Afghanistan for a six-month period in December. While some, including Yusufi, approve of the government, others question its leaders.
“They’re all warlords,” said Moshref. “I’m not very optimistic about its future.”
But for all their differences, all Afghans have one simple wish: peace for their homeland.
“The Afghan people want to see a stable government,” said Anwarzai. “For that, the community is trying to work together.”
Reach reporter Alexander Dworkowitz by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 141.
