While Sept. 11 is a time for the nation to reflect on those who lost their lives in the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil, it is also a time when many Muslim Americans find it necessary to keep a very low profile. Nationwide, Muslims and Arab-Americans tell of the hate-stares, insults and physical assaults they continue to face in the eight-year aftermath of the attacks that left 2,993 people dead. A new poll conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life supports their concerns. It found that 38 percent of Americans believe Islam is more likely than other faiths to encourage violence. Charlotte, N.C., resident Nancy Rokayak, 45, of who is an easy target because she covers her hair in public, told The Associated Press that she gets “a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach every year. I feel on 9/11 others look at me and blame me for the events that took place.” The Egyptian-born ultrasound tech said she makes sure she is wearing a red, white and blue flag pin every Sept. 11 and makes sure she doesn’t wander too far from home. She isn’t alone. Sarah Sayeed, 41, who lives in the Bronx, also sticks close to home when the anniversary of the attacks arrives. “There’s still a sense of ‘Should I go anywhere? Should I say anything?’ There’s kind of that anxiety,” she also told AP. Sayeed, who was born in India and came to the U.S. at age 8, said she must “force myself to go out.” On Sept. 11, 2001 – the day 19 Arab hijackers intentionally crashed two airliners into the Twin Towers of the New York City’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon just outside of Washington, D.C. – Sayeed rushed to her son’s Islamic day school so they could both return home, she told the news agency. When she got to the school, other women warned her to take off her headscarf, or hijab, for her own safety. She said that she now attends an interfaith prayer event each Sept. 11. Abdul-Matin, 32, told AP that he avoids TV news on the anniversary “if it’s too much of this drumbeating or warmongering, if the focus is on `what they did to us.’” What many Americans fail to acknowledge, many Muslims say, is that those who perpetrated these evil crimes against the United States are not true Muslims at all. It’s like calling a mass murderer a Christian just because he went to church. A true Muslim, or Christian, they say, is one who lives by the principles established by the Mohammed or Jesus Christ, which call for peace and unity.

The CIA spent tens of millions of dollars to hire a controversial private security firm to seek out and assassinate al-Qaeda leaders, The New York Times reports. Four years ago, the spy agency contracted Blackwater USA, which gained national attention for its aggressive tactics in Iraq and New Orleans during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, to help with planning, training and surveillance. However, the Times reports, the CIA got very little for the millions it spent, since Blackwater never successfully captured or killed any terrorist suspects. “The fact that the C.I.A. used an outside company for the program was a major reason that Leon E. Panetta, the C.I.A.’s director, became alarmed and called an emergency meeting in June to tell Congress that the agency had withheld details of the program for seven years,” the Times writes. “It is unclear whether the C.I.A. had planned to use the contractors to actually capture or kill Qaeda operatives, or just to help with training and surveillance in the program. American spy agencies have in recent years outsourced some highly controversial work, including the interrogation of prisoners. But government officials said that bringing outsiders into a program with lethal authority raised deep concerns about accountability in covert operations.” Blackwater officials denied having a formal contract with Blackwater for an assassination program, but acknowledged that it had “individual agreements with top company officials, including the founder, Erik D. Prince, a politically connected former member of the Navy Seals and the heir to a family fortune.”

In a move that would inflate the cost of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to a whopping $947 billion, the Obama administration is seeking another $83.4 billion for military efforts over the next five months. Democratic congressional sources said Thursday that roughly three-quarters of the $864 billion allocated for the conflicts so far have gone to fighting in Iraq. Obama has said the situation in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan “demands urgent attention.” In submitting his funding request, Obama said in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, “The Taliban is resurgent, and al Qaeda threatens America from its safe haven along the Afghan-Pakistan border. There is no question of the resolve of our military women and men. Yet, in Afghanistan, that resolve has not been matched by a comprehensive strategy and sufficient resources.” Most of the money, about $75 billion worth, would go toward military operations – including $9.8 billion for body armor and protective vehicles and $11.6 billion to replace worn-out equipment. “The rest would go to diplomatic programs and development aid — including $1.6 billion for Afghanistan, $1.4 billion for Pakistan and $700 million for Iraq,” CNN reports.

 In an audio message posted on the web Wednesday purported to be from Al Qaeda leader Ayaman al-Zawahiri, he called President-elect Barack Obama a “house slave” while criticizing his proposed policies in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Al-Zawahiri is the organization’s No.2 leader. During the message, which lasted 11 minutes and 23 seconds, the speaker also contrasted Obama with Black Muslim leader Malcolm X, calling him the “direct opposite of honorable Black Americans” like Malcolm.  He went on to say that Obama along with former Secretary of State Colin Powell and current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, can be categorized as “house slaves,” by Malcolm X’s description.  The message included old clips from Malcolm X’s speeches. The speaker went on to paint a gloomy picture for Obama. “You have reached the position of president, and a heavy legacy of failure and crimes awaits you,” he said. “A failure in Iraq to which you have admitted, and a failure in Afghanistan to which the commanders of your army have admitted,” he said. He also said Obama’s plan to move more troops into Afghanistan “is a policy which was destined for failure before it was born.” The leader talked about Obama’s Muslim father and Obama’s current faith, Christianity. “You were born to a Muslim father, but you chose to stand in the ranks of the enemies of the Muslims…And so you promised to back Israel, and you threatened to strike the tribal regions in Pakistan, and to send thousands more troops to Afghanistan, in order for the crimes of the American crusade to continue.” Officials have not confirmed the tape’s authenticity. Both Al-Zawahiri and Osama Bin Laden are believed to be hiding in Pakistan.