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I lost my appetite after 9\/11, which made fasting for Ramadan easier than usual. Waking up to eat my predawn breakfast was easy, too, because I couldn\u2019t sleep well. <\/p>\n
The numbers 9 and 11, on their own, don\u2019t mean anything. When I was little, I took pride in numbers. I knew Arab Muslims invented them (hence the term \u201cArabic numerals\u201d). So-called Muslims changed the numbers 9 and 11 forever by killing 3,000 innocent people \u2014 an act of suicide and murder so clearly against Islam and in defiance of the liberating spirit of Islam that guided their ancestors to invent numbers. <\/p>\n
The Koran says that killing a person not out of self-defense or in retaliation for a military attack is tantamount to killing all humankind (5:32). The sadness caused by the murder of the victims did kill a part of our humanity. The Koran also says that saving a life is equivalent to saving all of humankind. After 9\/11, all the people who reached out to me to learn more about Islam saved my life. I hope, in some small way, I saved theirs. In this war on terror, I am fighting not just for my country but for my faith, too. <\/p>\n
<\/i><\/p>\n
Asma Gull Hasan is the author of \u201cWhy I Am a Muslim\u201d (HarperCollins Thorsons\/Element 2004) and \u201cAmerican Muslims: The New Generation\u201d (Continuum 2000).\n<\/p>\n
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