FOR SOME MUSLIMS, KEEPING THE FAITH AT HARVARD MEANS COPING WITH THE THREAT OF VIOLENCE - TOPKatherine M. Gray, The Crimson, 3/8/06http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=511925At 8:30 p.m. on September 19, 2000, Munir Zilanawala '01 was walking past St. Paul's Cathedral on his way back to Dunster House when two Christians attacked him from behind.Zilanawala, who was wearing a Kufi, an Islamic prayer cap, said he immediately knew his assailants were interested in something more malicious than his money."I took 10 bucks out of my pocket and I said 'Here-just take it,'" Zilanawala says. "But they didn't. It wasn't a robbery-motivated attack."Soon after the men left him shouting for help on the church steps, Zilanawala's friend found him and called the police. Zilanawala was taken to a hospital with deep gashes on his head which needed stitches.Five years later, Huma Farid '06 was walking past Lamont when she heard a woman screaming, "You filthy Jew-hater!" The woman proceeded to chase her down the street.Farid, whose family comes from Pakistan, reported the incident to the Cambridge Police Department, but was later disappointed by what she said she perceived as the College's nonchalant response."No administrator contacted me with the exception of [Director of the Harvard Foundation] Dr. [S. Allen] Counter," Farid says. No community advisory was sent out by the administration, and for a couple of days after the incident, Farid wore hoodies to hide the head scarf, or hijab, she wears.Although recent attacks against Muslims on the Harvard campus have not been directly perpetrated by students, Islamophobia exists in less overt forms at Harvard. Many Muslim students have experienced moments when they said they have felt surprised or offended by others' assumptions about followers of Islam. (MORE)