Afghan-Americans show support

SPRINGFIELD, Va. -- Afghan-Americans gathered at an interfaith fund-raiser for the Red Cross Sunday, pleading with Americans not to punish them or their homeland for Tuesday's terror attacks. \n"This is not an act on the United States, it is an act on the whole civilization," former Afghan diplomat Majit Mangal told several hundred people at the Mustafa Center. "We all stand united against the forces of evil." \nAs it prepares to respond to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the United States has focused on Afghanistan because the ruling Taliban militia provides safe haven for Osama bin Laden, whom the United States has identified as the prime suspect. \nOfficials from the Mustafa Center, an Islamic center serving more than 20,000 Afghans in the Washington area, held the fund-raiser to benefit the American Red Cross and allow people to express themselves. \nChildren painted red, white and blue stripes on their faces and waved signs that read "The Afghan community mourns the recent tragic event in America!" \nAdults spoke out against terrorism and led the group in prayer. \nRangina Hamidi, who has lived in this country for 14 of her 24 years, begged Americans not to retaliate against innocent people. \nHamidi held up a photograph of her brother, who is still in Afghanistan. \n"People (in New York) are holding up photos of their family members on television saying 'Have you seen my brother?' What I want to know is, who's going to look for my brother if we go to war?" \nAbdul Sherzia, 33, said Afghan-Americans felt the pain of Tuesday's attacks. "We've been through this for more than 20 years." \nAfghan-Americans are doubly hurt, he said, by witnessing the trade center crumbling and by being associated with acts of terrorism. \n"We are asking our neighbors to be patient," Sherzia said. "We demand punishment of the people who had part of that vile behavior. But Afghanistans will be victims once more." \nMariam Ehsan said people need to distinguish between the Taliban and the rest of Afghanistan. \n"It's the government that's taking over," said Ehsan, 20, a student at Marymount University. "It's not like the United States where people choose their own government. The government (in Afghanistan) came in and took over. The people didn't choose it." \nEhsan said she hasn't been the target of religious prejudice here since Tuesday's attacks, but some of her friends and family members have. \n"It doesn't matter if you're Afghanistan, American, Muslim, whatever, you still feel because those people died," she said.