By Michael Wacht

HOBE SOUND — The Rev. Linda Standifer is concerned about the way Arabs and Muslims have been "demonized" in the United States since the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

Standifer is pastor of First United Methodist Church here and chairwoman of the conference’s Mission Ministry Team. Her concern, however, is not just because she is a Christian and pastor or because of her involvement in missions, but because her son-in-law, Yahya Moussaoui, is a Muslim.

"When I think of Islam, I think of Yahya," she said. "The way he lives his life has opened my eyes in a way they wouldn’t have been opened if I didn’t know him. At his mosque they feed the hungry and collect clothes for the poor, not just for Muslims, but for all the poor people in their neighborhoods. I wish I could say that’s the way we are."

Instead, Standifer said she has been "shocked" at how Muslims were blamed first for the attacks, even before there was any evidence, and how they "have been looked at badly."

Moussaoui’s mosque in Washington, D.C., responded to President George Bush’s call for a national day of prayer Sept. 14. At 7 p.m., after their prayer service, mosque members went outside with lit candles to join in an informal vigil that was organized through e-mails. At the same time, a group of Christians had gathered across the street. They shouted at and harassed the Muslims, Standifer said.

Moussaoui wasn’t "expecting a whole lot different," Standifer said. "His reaction was, ‘It’s okay. I understand.’ "

Moussaoui sees events in the Middle East from the Arab side "and he sees their oppression…and how things are reported in a one-sided way in the newspapers," Standifer said.

News stories reporting Muslims performing "strange rituals" at health clubs have also upset Standifer. "It’s the same strange ritual my daughter and her husband did before they were married," she said. "They prayed. We call things we don’t do ‘strange rituals.’ "

Standifer says that if the aim of terrorists is to create chaos, then the treatment of Arab- and Muslim-Americans "is not combating that, it’s creating more chaos."

Standifer hopes the patriotic feelings inspired by the attacks don’t turn into the kind of paranoia that marked the days of Senator Joseph McCarthy’s hunt for communists.

"It’s too bad we live in a world where good people are persecuted," she said. "Our job now is to find ways in which God can transform the whole situation. And not just watch, but become part of the transformation."