Editor’s note: This is the first story in a three-part series about being Muslim in America.

Tom Dostart had just finished a breakfast meeting and returned to his room when he heard what sounded like a screaming jet and a sonic boom.

A few minutes later he looked out the window of the 27th floor of the Millennium Hotel in New York City and saw dark clouds and what seemed to be ticker tape falling from above. In reality it was 8 1/2 x 11 inch pieces of paper falling from one of the Twin Towers across the plaza.

When he saw a gash and fire in the World Trade Center after the impact, he said he assumed from recent events that Islamic terrorists had flown the plane into the building. It could not have happened by accident.

Dostart, a ’77 ISU graduate and general counsel of a large coal company in Kentucky, ran up to the 36th floor oh his hotel to visit a co-worker and one other person. As they spoke, someone saw the second plane fly between the Towers. All three saw a ball of fire filled with debris coming toward them.

“As I am talking to one person, the world blew up in our faces,” Dostart said. “I thought we might well be killed. It took us all of about three seconds to react.”

They ran out of the room and took the elevator down to the lobby where they were told over the speaker system to remain in the hotel where it was safe, due to the falling debris outside. As Dostart and his friends looked out three large windows facing the Towers, he said he finally saw an open door on the side and told his friends it was time to leave.

He later found out the windows where Dostart and his friends had looked out were blown out.

“If we had stayed another 25 minutes, I think we would have been killed,” Dostart said.

Outside he described the atmosphere as somewhat chaotic, but relatively calm, and packed with people. Debris continued to fall from the Towers. Everyone in all the buildings was ordered to leave, putting millions on the streets of Manhattan. Dostart said that people were wall-to-wall everywhere.

After walking 8 to 10 blocks past the New York Stock Exchange, Dostart and his friends met up with the others for their business deal on Broad Street.

He said it took more than 50 calls on his cell phone to reach his wife.

“The air was getting sick, dusty,” Dostart said. “I was being covered – slightly covered – with the cremated remains of those from the Twin Towers. That made me choke up with my wife.”

Later, to his disbelief, someone said the World Trade Center fell when in fact the second tower was still standing. At that point, things turned to total chaos. Within five seconds, he said, everyone he knew disappeared in the large, frantic crowd.

Dostart stayed by a skyscraper to avoid the falling building and then began walking north along the east side of Manhattan, down the middle of the F.D.R. Freeway in his coat and tie pulling a rollerboard and heavy briefcase. A little later he climbed over concrete

barriers to the other side of the freeway to avoid firetrucks and emergency vehicles flying past.

He refused to travel across the Brooklyn Bridge because he was concerned it would be a target.

At one point during his six-mile walk, he heard a screaming fighter jet above and people hit the ground, not knowing if it was “theirs or ours.”

“I heard and saw the second tower fall from about three miles away. The sight and sound was horrible and unforgettable,” he said. “We all watched, but no one spoke.”

The U.S. government later identified 19 hijackers who were determined to either have ties or be a part of the al-Qaeda Islamic organization the United States deemed as a terrorist group, although the leader, Osama bin Laden, did not claim direct ties until October 2004.

In the end, 2,819 people were confirmed dead in the attacks, including 70 Muslims.

The Muslim community throughout the United States and the world came out and strongly condemned the attacks, stating that the actions of a few extremists were not representative of the Islam faith.

Full-page ads were run and statements from organizations such as the Organization of the Islamic Conference, which represented 56 Muslim countries issued the following statement: “These terrorist acts contradict the teaching of all religions and human and moral values.”

Members of mosques and Muslim countries such as Iran and Bangladesh held vigils to sympathize with the families affected and show that they supported America during this time of grief.

In Cedar Rapids Imam Taha Tawil of the Mother Mosque of North America saw the compassion of people following the tragedy. That week the mosque saw flower bouquets and letters of encouragement cover the stairs. Tawil said his voicemail was full with messages from elected officials and residents of Cedar Rapids and Iowa, showing their support.

“We found that we have been treated with respect – no acts of violence,” he said.

Zenab Chowdhry, sophomore in pre-law at the University of Northern Iowa and a Muslim, was a freshman in high school when the terrorist attacks occurred.

Watching the events unfold on television, Chowdhry said she instinctively knew this was some type of terrorism that would be connected to Islam.

“Oh great! Stupid Muslims are blowing things up again,” she remembered thinking.

Before that, she said Muslims were being assimilated into American society and “doing well.”

“Muslims are going to be down a peg because of this,” Chowdhry remembered thinking.

Kamel Harrata, supervisor of the mass spectrometry at Iowa State and a Muslim, spent the early morning of Sept. 11 much like every other day. He went to work and stopped in the coffee room. There he saw the downcast looks of others. No one was talking. Finally one of the secretaries turned to him and said, “They hit us.” Nothing more.

Harrata said he went back to his office and phoned his wife who informed him of what was happening. When she told him a second plane had made contact, he knew who was responsible for the attacks. There was a precedent, he said.

“That moment, I knew it,” he said. “I knew the kind of people who did it.”

Harrata said he remembers holding his head, then getting in his car and driving home.

“I was scared that day. And I was confused. What’s next?” Harrata asked himself.

A few days later that feeling had turned to anger.