The Muslim man told his friend to wait for him while he finished work at a Burlington restaurant. The friend sat in the lobby.

        Somebody called police, reporting a strange-looking man lurking.

        That's the kind of increased suspicion under which Muslims live in the United States since the government officially blamed Osama bin Laden, an exiled Saudi Muslim, for the deadly Sept. 11 terrorism.

Outside his apartment in Burlington, Mohamed Aly, 32, recounts his experience of being detained and questioned by the FBI. He is from Mauritania. (Patrick Reddy photo) | ZOOM |

        On Friday, federal agents rousted more than two dozen Muslim people from their Northern Kentucky apartments, and took their computers and personal papers. On Saturday, officials said they had found nothing to cause concern.

        “We're not strange, we're just different from you,” said Mohamed Aly, 32, who was among the Muslims from Florence and Burlington held for hours. “We're just trying to live here, to work here. We have all our immigration papers. All the people of Arab descent are suspect now.”

        All the Muslims who live in the Boone County neighborhood of Burl Park emigrated from Mauritania, a west African country.

        “We know America is a country for freedom and for opportunity,” Mr. Aly said. “There are some bad Muslims. But there are good Muslim people. It is our religion. You cannot be bad if you have our faith.”

        Mohamed Salem had to have Mr. Aly drive him to his job at McDonald's on Sunday because he said the federal agents took his driver's license.

        “We're just trying to live here,” he said, “to work here.”

ISLAM

The Muslims questioned by federal and local agencies Friday say they are targets in part because non-Muslims do not understand them or their religion, Islam. Some facts about Islam and its followers:     • Muslims, like Christians, are monotheists, meaning they believe in one God. Allah is that God. Allah, however, is not depicted in any human form.     • The Islamic holy book is the Koran. All but one of its 114 chapters begins: “In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate.”     • Muslims believe Allah created man to worship him and that he chooses prophets to help teach people about him. They believe Jesus was a prophet, but not the son of God because he was born without a father. The Koran teaches that Jesus was raised up to God, not crucified.     Muhammad was the last prophet. Many Muslims carry his name.    Source: The Institute of Islamic Information and Education

        A neighbor told officials Mr. Aly was from Afghanistan. He apparently thought that because he once accepted a package for Mr. Aly from the Saudi Arabian Embassy. Mr. Aly said the package contained books on Islam.

        Shawn Moran, 18, sat outside another apartment Sunday afternoon with his pit bull. He said he and his friends joked after the bombings of the World Trade Center and Pentagon that maybe some of their neighbors were the terrorists.

        “But they pretty much stick to themselves,” he said.

        Muslims do that, Mr. Aly said, because their religion teaches them to stick together, live together, help each other.

        “People ask why Muslims all live together,” he said. “Like if someone is my friend and I come here first, he is going to live with me because I am going to teach him about this country, about English.”

        His sister called from Mauritania. She told him to move to another safer country, but he told her he'd be OK.

        “I said, "Yes, I am all right,'” he said. “But really, I am not. I do not feel good.”

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