Still Living in the Shadow of a September Day
LAS VEGAS — Late one weeknight in the middle of last summer, Khalid Khan, a stalwart among Las Vegas Muslims, sat in his living room with his daughter, a law student, discussing Islam in America, clashes between culture and religion, and the tensions large and small stirred by the terrorist strikes of Sept. 11.
As president of the Islamic Society of Nevada, it was Khan's task to maintain contact with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies, to build their trust and talk them down should they overreact to dubious tips about specific Muslims.
"They have been honest with me," he said of his FBI contacts. "They told me: 'Mr. Khan, try to understand our situation. Before 9/11, our job was to solve a crime. When there was a crime committed, we would be assigned to solve it. Now they are saying to us, there might be a crime that might be committed, and you go find it.' "
On first impression, Khan had seemed a stern, humorless fellow. His textile company supplies sheets to large hotels on the Strip, and in an introductory interview a few months earlier he had been asked, in a feeble attempt at jocularity, if he ever thought about what transpired on all that linen.
"That," he had replied with a frown, "is something we never think about."
Now, though, as his visitor stood to leave, the interview completed, Khan gestured to the sofa and said, "Wait, I have to tell you a joke."
Everybody sat back down. Khan leaned forward, eyes bright, voice low, almost a whisper.
"You know," he began, deadpan, "that in Islam we believe in angels. We believe that, after death, the person has to go into the ground and an angel comes and asks three questions. Who was your God? Who was your prophet? And what was your book? The right answers are: There is only one God, Muhammad is the prophet, and the book is the Koran.
"So then this Muslim died. And the angel came and said, 'Who is your God?' And the Muslim answered, 'President Bush.' 'Who is your prophet?' 'John Ashcroft.' 'What is your book?' 'The Patriot Act.' The angel was really confused by these answers. He went back to God and said, 'Look, I found one person who has some really strange answers I have never heard.' And God said: 'Bring him to me. I'll ask him the questions.' "
Now, standing before the obviously true God -- Allah, in Arabic -- the Muslim answered the questions again, this time giving the proper Islamic responses. But why, God wanted to know, hadn't the fellow done this the first time, why all this business about Bush, Ashcroft and the Patriot Act?
