3 WAYS TO LISTEN
1. Listen to the full article here:
2. Right click here and “save as” to save an mp3 of the article to your computer.
3. Listen to sections of the article by pressing the play buttons that appear before a set of words in the article below.
READING LEVEL 3
A Muslim Crossing the Border
“The Police Stop Us Every Time.”
Abukar
On September 11, 2001, a few people did something terrible. They committed terrorism. These people were Muslims, but they did not act like real Muslims. The Koran teaches us not to kill.
These terrorists killed many people on that day. They hurt many families. They also hurt the Muslim community. For example, last year, I went to the U.S. to visit my sister. On the border, the police stopped us. They saw we have a Muslim name. They held us for four hours. They checked the car. They fingerprinted us and took our pictures.
It was a horrible moment. I felt helpless. The police still stop us every time we visit the U.S. It takes many hours for us to cross the border. Now I don’t visit my sister. I hate the humiliation of crossing the border.
Abukar lives in Toronto, Canada, and takes classes at George Brown College. This was adapted from his piece published in the Sept. 2011 issue of The Change Agent.