By Sara Russo

Arizona State University junior Ahmad Saad Nasim was charged October 11th with two misdemeanor counts of false reporting to law enforcement, after he admitted fabricating two incidents of hate crimes in the days following the September 11th attacks on America. A religious Muslim who hails from Saudi Arabia but has held US citizenship for two years, Nasim's fake accusations created an atmosphere of panic on campus, and contributed to the flight of at least 51 international students, mainly from Middle Eastern nations, who feared for their safety at school.

The first hate crime was reported on September 13th, just two days after the attacks on America, when Nasim claimed that he was pushed to the ground and pelted with eggs in a campus parking lot by two men shouting, "Die, Muslim die!" The attack received national media coverage, and was vigorously condemned on campus.

The apparent victim took the time to express his thanks to the campus community in a letter to the editor in ASU's student paper, the State Press. "Many of you e-mailed to show your support, gave online get well cards and many kind messages that made me burst into tears," he wrote. "My physical injuries will take time to wither away. But you Sun Devils have certainly taken care of the emotional pains I had."

A former student at the University of Arizona, Nasim also expressed his outrage over the attack in the UA student paper, the Arizona Daily Wildcat. "For about five minutes I was being slapped and punched on my back, and heard a comment, "Die Muslim Die! Die Muslim Die! Die Muslim Die! Die Muslim Die!" he reported. "A Pakistani man was shot in Texas, a Sikh Indian and an Arab were shot in Mesa, and I was beaten in Tempe. I don't know if tomorrow I can safely go to classes or not, maybe I might get shot at some gas station, too!"

Campus police initially became suspicious of Nasim because his account of the egging incident did not match the physical facts. No eggshells were found in the parking lot where the hate crime supposedly took place, and Nasim refused to cooperate with authorities who wanted to conduct a second interview. Nevertheless, the police continued to pursue his case, and patrols on campus and especially in parking lots were increased.

The hoax was finally revealed after Nasim attempted to portray himself as a victim of a second, more elaborate, hate crime. On Wednesday, September 26th, thirteen days after the previous incident, a student and a custodian found Nasim in a bathroom stall. The word "Die" was written on his forehead and on his chest, and he had a plastic grocery store bag tied over his head, and a racist note stuffed in his mouth. But campus police were immediately led to doubt Nasim's story because, in the words of ASU campus police Lieutenant John Sutton, "Something was not right." Nasim's hands were unbound, the bathroom door was locked only from inside the stall, and he suffered no signs of suffocation.

Nasim confessed the next day in an interview with police to having faked both of the hate crimes, though he offered no explanation for his behavior. "He didn't give us any reason," noted school spokesman Keith Jennings. "He said it didn't happen."

It was only after some delay that Nasim was charged by the police for two instances of issuing false reports to authorities. Some have criticized the ASU administration for failing to take immediate action against Nasim, but Jennings disputes the claim that the university acted inappropriately. "What we said was we were not arresting him immediately, and that we did turn over the information immediately to the county attorney's office who has since charged Nasim," Jennings told Campus Report.

At twenty-three years old, Nasim has been enrolled in college for a total of four years, first at the University of Arizona and then at Arizona State. During his tenure as a student, Nasim was a constant activist for left-wing causes and for recognition for Muslims on campus. A member of Students Against Sweatshops and Students Against the Death Penalty, and the president of the Muslim Students Association at UA, Nasim wrote dozens of letters to the editor to the UA student paper, the Arizona Daily Wildcat, advocating various measures and exhibiting extreme views.

"Only a stupid idiot will believe that Iraq is actually being punished for its actions," he wrote of US sanctions following the Gulf War. In a separate letter he objected to the FBI's detainment of two Saudi Arabian students who had jiggled the cockpit door and asked suspicious questions during an airplane flight in 1999. "I would strongly say (it was discrimination) because it's not something new," Nasim commented. Other public positions included recommending that the University of Arizona Police Department be required to attend diversity training, expressing support for a gay and lesbian organization on campus, arguing that pro-Catholic flyers shouldn't be posted in dormitory hallways, and criticizing a cartoon in the Wildcat that made fun of hermaphrodites.

The current case is not the first time that Nasim has claimed to be the victim of a hate crime. Police reports show that in 1999 Nasim claimed to have received threatening phone calls at his job and in his dorm room stating, "This is your last day, today." Nasim did not save the messages and the case was closed for lack of suspects.

A second episode came in September of 2000 when Nasim, then webmaster for Students Against the Death Penalty at the University of Arizona, discovered racial and anti-homosexual slurs posted on the organization's website.

Among the comments posted on the site were, "This club is for motherf-kers," and "That nigger deserved it, right?" posted over the picture of a black man who had been executed. Links to other anti-death penalty sites were allegedly instead routed to pornography sites, and Nasim also reported receiving a threatening message on his answering machine that said, "go home you filthy foreigners."

The University of Arizona Police Department placed the hacking between midnight and 11a.m. on September 24th. Nasim discovered the hacking that same morning at 11:30. "I was shocked because we are an educational group," Nasim commented at the time. "We just want to let people know that the death penalty is inhumane."

The State Press reports that Nasim told police that he was unable to provide any evidence of the crime because he had immediately changed the website and his answering machine automatically erases his messages.The University of Arizona Police Department confirms that that case involving the website was never solved, and is still an active file.

While the most recent hate crimes committed against Nasim were shown to be hoaxes, other foreigners in the state of Arizona have had actual encounters with brutality. Two days after Nasim faked his first hate crime, a gas station owner in Mesa named Balbir Singh Sodhi was shot to death, possibly because as an Indian Sikh he wore a turban. Ten days later, an ASU student of Indian descent was assaulted while walking home.

In the aftermath of Nasim's admission that he had faked the attacks, several of his fellow students at ASU and UA refused to believe that he could have perpetuated such a hideous hoax. "I am disgusted by the filth and lies portrayed by the ASU police department about my friend Ahmad Saad Nasim," one student wrote in the State Press. "Saadi is a Sunni-Sufi who does not need fame or glory in the media. He is a very spiritual person who just cannot lie….I believe Saadi was forced into a confession so that his cousin may be freed."

Another student who identified himself as a Muslim cleric claimed, "Ahmad lied out of fear on Thursday to save his cousin Khurram Shamim from Florence jail. Khurram Shamim is being held because he was missing for three days before September 11. The only reason, because he went to his grandmother's funeral in San Francisco."

A third friend of Nasim's stated her opinion in the Arizona Daily Wildcat. "It is my belief that Saad Nasim said the hate crimes didn't happen only to save his cousin Khurram Shamim. His cousin was being held in Florence, Italy because the FBI/INS were suspicious that he was a terrorist….His cousin also may appear to look like the stereotypical terrorist to the average American. It is sad that Muslims are treated in such a way and are accused of lying after being attacked."

ASU spokesman Keith Jennings noted the lingering effects on campus of Nasim's false accusations. "It hasn't helped us," he told Campus Report. "It created an atmosphere of fear that we did not need. It may have contributed to some of the students that have decided to leave campus at this point, so we're not happy about that."

"In my opinion, it created a false atmosphere of paranoia and this sort of guilt-ridden atmosphere that leftists thrive in," ASU student Oubai Shahbander told Campus Report. "What's actually really interesting is that no student organizations that had been leading the whole anti-hate campaign on campus went out of their way to denounce this individual. In fact, we had two letters to the editor, published by students, actually supporting him."