American Dreamers

This sense of alienation can be seen most clearly in places like Lackawanna, home of the six convicted young men. Earlier this year the Lackawanna varsity and junior-varsity soccer teams were suspended from the local league for rough play. The varsity team, which is predominantly Yemenite, accuses some of the referees and fans of being racist. (Fans called them "terrorists" and "camel jockeys" during games, players say.) At the same time, the players broke the rules of good behavior: after losing a critical game, 3-2, they swore at and allegedly spit on the other players, and in one case allegedly shoved a referee. In a town with high unemployment and the constant risk of losing kids to drugs and crime, soccer was a wholesome, if occasionally rough, way to pass the time. The team played "all night, all day," says star varsity forward Hamud Alasri, 17. Alasri was hoping to get a soccer scholarship to the University of Buffalo, but with the team's suspension, that opportunity has passed.

Kathy Ahmed, 37, refused to let her son, Jamil, now 20, join the soccer team; she didn't like the racist environment of the public high school or the league play. Asked if she's worried that the young men in her community are at risk of becoming terrorists, Ahmed says no: the Lackawanna Six were vulnerable boys seduced by a charismatic radical. "I'm not worried about [boys in Lackawanna] becoming terrorists. I worry that they'll lose their spirituality. There are so many things calling them. I see them as lost." Losing Jamil Ahmed and Autri Sajedeen would be the worst thing in the world—not just for them, but for all of us.

In our July 30 cover story "American Dreamers," we mistakenly included Iran among a list of nations in the Arab world. Newsweek regrets the error.

With Roya Wolverson in Lackawanna, Sanhita Sen in Queens, Karen Breslau and Robina Riccitiello in Silicon Valley, Julie Scelfo in Trenton, Arian Campo-Flores in Boston, Hilary Shenfeld in Chicago, Roqaya Ashmawey in Ann Arbor, Aisha Eady in Minneapolis, Christopher Dickey in Paris, Mark Hosenball, Daren Briscoe and Abby Dalton in Washington and Owen Matthews in Istanbul

© 2007