October 5, 2010

Click here to watch the video" />
Click here to watch the video

One year ago today, a suicide bomber attacked the Islamabad headquarters of the United Nations Food Program. Today, the Muslim Public Affairs Council released a special video message from Adam Motiwala, an American Muslim who was injured in the attacks while he was working for the U.N. Food Program.

WATCH THE VIDEO NOW

Motiwala was working in the Islamabad office when a suicide bomber attacked the heavily secured compound on a Monday morning, killing five U.N. staffers and injuring four others.

"This is a heinous crime committed against those who have been working tirelessly to assist the poor and vulnerable on the front lines of hunger and other human suffering in Pakistan," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Associated Press the day of the attack.

Motiwala was an information officer for the World Food Program in Islamabad, an office that was established to help the more than three million displaced Pakistanis due to ongoing fighting. He suffered injuries to his head, legs and stomach and was flown to Dubai for immediate surgery to remove shrapnel from his head behind his ear, as well as in his ankle.

Click here to watch the video Motiwala posted on Facebook last year while he was in the hospital awaiting surgery.

According to a recent report, 85 percent of al-Qaeda's victims between 2004 and 2008 were non-Western individuals, and the figure is higher (98 percent) if you look solely at the period of 2006-2008.

In the video, Motiwala recalls what happened on that average Monday when the attack took place, and reflects on how he grappled with the reality that the perpetrator behind the attack was a fellow Muslim.

"You have your own extremist agenda, your own political motivation, and you're distorting the whole faith of Islam," Motiwala says in the video, addressing the perpetrator of the violent attack.

A native of Los Angeles, Motiwala is an alumnus of the NewGround Fellowship Program, a Muslim-Jewish engagement program for young professionals co-directed by MPAC and the Progressive Jewish Alliance.

In July, MPAC released its first specially produced video message -- "Injustice Cannot Defeat Injustice" -- featuring nine prominent American Muslim scholars and imams speaking out against violent extremism as a violation of Islamic teachings.