In Brooklyn, 9/11 Damage Continues
By ANDREA ELLIOTT

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/07/nyregion/07BROO.html

The signs in Midwood, Brooklyn, surfaced slowly at
first. Curry packets at the New Apna Bazaar started to
accumulate. The line of cars at the Sunoco station
began to thin.

And then the crowd dwindled at Friday Prayer at the
Makki Mosque on Coney Island Avenue. This, among
worshipers once so numerous they prayed on the street
for lack of room.

"Now the rooms are empty inside," said Danieyel
Yaqocb, 32, a taxi driver who lives in Midwood. "It's
hard to live here now. People don't have too many
friends like before."

In this heavily Pakistani community, the word "before"
begs no further explanation. It refers to a crucial
turning point — Sept. 11, 2001 — in this
neighborhood's modern history, a date that marked the
start of an exodus of thousands of Pakistanis and the
arrival of a new discomfort in day-to-day living for
those who remained.

Arrests, closer scrutiny and an increased threat of
deportation have plagued Arabs and Muslims nationwide.
In New York, Egyptians, Moroccans, Jordanians and
Lebanese have seen numbers of detentions. But no group
appears harder hit than the Pakistanis.

Before Sept. 11, an estimated 120,000 Pakistanis lived
in Brooklyn, concentrated in Midwood and Brighton
Beach. Since then, between 40 and 50 percent have been
detained or deported or have left on their own, said
Bobby Khan, executive director of the Coney Island
Avenue Project, which was formed after the attack to
help Arabs and Muslims who were detained.

Some Pakistanis have migrated to Canada, while others
have returned home, leaving divided families behind.
About 1,000 have been detained, and 80 percent of them
have been deported, Mr. Khan said.

"Even with the papers, people are scared of what's
going on and they feel it's safer to move somewhere
else," said Mohammad Iqbal, 45, who owns the New Apna
Bazaar on Coney Island Avenue.

For Mr. Yaqocb and his friend and fellow taxi driver,
Mohammed Ihsan, the heightened scrutiny translates to
many sad interruptions in routine. The two men used to
meet with a group of friends to watch cricket on
satellite television.

Now they fear a meeting would suggest subversive
behavior, or pique the suspicions of, perhaps, a
building superintendent.

"We can't get together," said Mr. Ihsan. "If you're
sitting at someone's home, six or seven guys, they'll
ask, 'Why are you sitting there?' "

The economic fallout of this exodus, matched with New
York's struggling economy, is also widely apparent.
Pakistani-owned stores have closed, or are on the
brink of going out of business. Mr. Iqbal, whose
grocery sells lentils, paprika and other products for
Pakistanis as well as kosher and Russian products,
said he had seen business drop by half in the last 18
months.

Mr. Yaqocb, the taxi driver, waved a hand south along
the shopping strip of Coney Island Avenue. "This used
to be all Pakistani stores. Now it's become Russian
stores."

The Arab exodus has also surfaced in sudden requests
for one-way tickets out of the country, said a travel
agent in Downtown Brooklyn.

"When they come, they ask for a one-way ticket because
they have to go. We don't ask them any questions,"
said the travel agent, a 31-year-old Sudanese who
spoke on condition of anonymity.

For 18-year-old Sameena Kausar, among the harder
things to witness is the drain of fellow students in
her Koran class and services at the Makki Mosque.

"It was crowded before," she said. "It's not many
people now."


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