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It was obvious things had changed the moment I set foot inside a roadside cafe about 100 miles into America. On previous visits to the US, I had found the welcome warm and loud; this time, the coffee was served with mild hostility. I was perplexed, but assumed that tiredness was making me exaggerate the reaction of the cafe's proprietor. As I sat down, a colleague noticed people were looking at our group. It was only when I began looking through my newspaper that I saw pictures of Middle Eastern terrorists with more than a passing resemblance to my own visage. One of them, the ugliest, reminded me of a publicity shot taken when I worked on a regional TV programme. I glanced up to find people were still staring. Suddenly, it clicked that I was being looked upon as a potential source of suspicion. I suggested we leave, because the cafe had become increasingly uncomfortable. The mood in this cosmopolitan country was changing. We had flown to Montreal, courtesy of an ITN-chartered jumbo, on Thursday evening. Arriving in Canada at 2am, we hired a people-carrier and driver and headed for New York. Ten hours later, we would begin filming the catastrophic physical and human carnage. It is not hard to see why Americans are so angry. Indeed, I am surprised that there is not a greater desire to wreak vengeance on those responsible for last week's horrific attacks. What has been surprising is that, after 16 years of unencumbered travel across the US, I am now personally conscious of being watched. And the hostility is growing. At the weekend, a Sikh petrol station attendant in Arizona came out of his cabin to serve a motorist. After attending to the customer, he turned to walk away and was shot. When the police arrested a man close to the shooting, he shouted "I did it for America". Another worrying incident concerned Shaykh Hisham Kabbani, the chairman of the Islamic Supreme Council of America. Back in 1999, Kabbani had voluntarily given evidence before the Senate suggesting that Muslim extremists were planning to attack the US and he warned the federal government to give careful consideration to the activities of certain fundamentalist groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Kabbani is a moderate politician who has repeatedly asserted that nothing in the Koran supports the actions of Muslim extremists. At the weekend, he was invited to attend an ecumenical service in a call for peace. As he drove towards the service, wearing his most dignified headgear, two vehicles began criss-crossing dangerously in front of him. One of the drivers pointed at Kabbani, then made a cutting action across his own neck. Within a few minutes, Kabbani's car was stopped by police, who said they wanted to examine his papers. When he showed them his invitation, the officers apologised and said they had to assume that anybody could be a potential suspect in the "New War". Having spent three days filming, I sought some refuge from the relentless tragedy by attending a service at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. As far as I could tell, I was the only Asian Christian member of the congregation. The Rev Dr Thomas Tewell, Senior Pastor, chose to expound a text from St Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians. "For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities, for when I am weak then I am strong." It was time to redefine our notions of "strength" and "weakness", said Dr Tewell. "The symbols of power and wealth, such as the Pentagon and the World Trade Centre, have been shown to be weaker than we imagined. Now, where is your strength?" he asked. He then counselled Christians against what he described as "racist patriotism", saying it was perfectly possible to have contempt for Osama bin Laden but also to show charity to law-abiding Muslims. Dr Tewell then invited the congregation to hold hands with somebody nearby. I suddenly found myself in isolation, with everybody else in possession of a warm embrace. Just as he began to say, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ..." an African-American parishioner came to my rescue. I felt like kissing the man there and then. Afterwards, I wandered back to work, picking up a hot-dog on the way. The man serving the food wasted no time in asking the question on his mind. "You a Muslim?" he said, with a sidelong glance. Martin Bashir's film will be broadcast in a special edition of the Tonight programme on ITV at 10.35pm tomorrow
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