"They're going to say: `You're Muslim. Why did you guys do this?' " says Zamir.

But Zamir, president of the Muslim Student Association at the University of New Mexico, wants to spread the word: Don't jump to blame Arab-Americans for the East Coast attacks that shook the nation Tuesday.

Zamir said he is worried that he and fellow Muslims will face a harsh backlash following the attacks - four hijacked airplanes, each targeting a different structural fiber of Americana.

U.S. officials are blaming Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden, who is linked to a number of extremist Islamic groups and has declared a religious war on the United States.

"These extreme groups who claim things in the name of the religion put a bad name on our religion and our true followers," Zamir said. "The name Islam means peace. True Muslims don't adhere to these activities.

"But there are people out there who are ignorant and will take things out on anyone who is Middle Eastern."

Dr. James Zogby, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Arab American Institute, said Tuesday night he had already heard of incidents against Arabs.

"There is a prejudice in the air right now," Zogby said. "I listened to everything all day and people are fanning the flames."

He said he fielded several hateful phone calls and e-mails and has heard reports of bomb threats at mosques and Arab children getting beaten up in American schools.

Zamir said it is too early to determine what kind of backlash Albuquerque's Arab community will face. But some members of that community are not going out of their way to find out.

The Muslim Student Association was to participate in the UNM Health Fair on campus today. Though it wasn't clear Tuesday evening if the event would still take place, Zamir said he has spoken with fellow Muslims who would no longer be participating.

"We have some activities planned on campus in the next few days and I know there are some people who are apprehensive about going," Zamir said. "Not everyone is staying away, but there is a level of apprehension because people hear about somebody from one place who does this, and then they think everybody with an Arab name or who looks like an Arab is involved somehow.

"It's unfortunate that a small number of individuals are labeled the same as the people who commit these terrible acts. It affects a much larger population of people who don't condone or agree with what has been done."

Zamir said there are about 100 students involved in the Muslim Student Association and the said the Arab community in Albuquerque is much, much larger.

While reports estimate up to 7 million Muslims living in the United States, there are about 3.5 million Arab-Americans in the country, said Jenny Salan, a spokeswoman for the Arab American Institute.

She said each of them, along with Americans of every background and ethnicity, will feel the effects of Tuesday's attacks.

"It's just really a horrible, horrendous day for all Americans," she said Tuesday. "I think for Arab-Americans, there's the added sense that people are looking at you as a suspect.

"And while all this is happening, Arab-Americans have been affected directly. We have Arab-Americans who work in the federal government and who obviously worked in the World Trade Center."

Albuquerque's only mosque, the Islamic Center of Albuquerque in the Southeast Heights, was closed. No one immediately returned messages left at the office.

Across the country, American Muslim groups rushed Tuesday to condemn the terror attacks.

Imam Hassan Qazwini, religious leader of the Islamic Center of America in Detroit, told the Associated Press: "I hope we are not going to see some horrific event directed against any innocent person."

In the first few days after the 1995 bombing, before it was linked to Timothy McVeigh, Muslims reported more than 200 incidents of harassment, threats or violence, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington, D.C.

Zogby said he was disappointed President Bush didn't address American-Arab relations in his speech Tuesday night. Zogby said the key in this time of transition is simply understanding.

"We don't know who did this, but some have rushed to the conclusion that it was Arabs," he said. "Well, if it turns out an Arab is behind this, it's important that we all understand that it wasn't an Arab-American, and it wasn't the Arab who lives down the street, it wasn't the Arab who teaches your children and it wasn't the Arab who works at your local hospital."