WASHINGTON, 19 January 2003 — In a city looking for hope, Syed Ali is a symbolic hero.

An immigrant from Pakistan, Syed Ali is a gas station attendant in Brooklyn, New York.

Perhaps he’s not the first guy who comes to mind when you think of a hero, but his simple act of decency has the whole town talking.

Around 4 a.m. last week, Ali, 35, had just begun his shift at his Amoco station when a young man walked in and wanted $2 worth of gas.

Thinking his car had run out of gas, Ali told him it was unlawful to sell gasoline in a bucket, and lent him a gas container. Ali said he "didn’t think anything of it" when the young man took gas and walked down the street.

Within 20 minutes Ali said the young man returned, and bought more gas.

Curious, Ali watched him more closely as he crossed the street to the synagogue. "He went up the stairs and starting splashing gas on the entry doors of the synagogue."

Alarmed, Ali called the police, while Saed Jakup, 22, returned, wanting more gas.

Ali, who was in a bulletproof booth, refused.

Just then the police arrived, and found Jakup, a Bosnian Muslim, trying to smash the cashier’s booth with a trashcan.

Ali said within minutes 30 to 40 police cars and fire trucks pulled up to the scene.

The police interviewed Jakup, handcuffed him and drove away, while Ali gave the police a statement over what had happened. Jakup was charged with third degree arson.

It wasn’t until later that he learned Jakup was also a Muslim.

"I had no idea, but still he was doing something really wrong. Whoever he was, Muslim or whoever, it was the wrong thing."

Ali rejects the notion that he’s a hero: "It was a sacred place he was going to destroy," he told Arab News in a telephone interview from his gas station. "I don’t think about being ‘a hero,’ I think of myself as a normal Muslim guy, who did what anyone would do. I’m just very satisfied inside of me, and with the outcome."

Ali, who moved to New York from Karachi, Pakistan in 1995, says that since the incident his life has changed completely.

"Every day lots of Jewish people come over to see me. They shake my hand and kiss me. They are very sentimental about this, and praise my effort, say religion shouldn’t matter and that this is way things ways should be between Jews and Muslims."

Following the attempted arson, Ali was invited to the synagogue where the president of the synagogue, Allen Popper, called him "a hero." Ali said he’s a bit uncomfortable over all the publicity and fuss being made about him.

Jakup’s relative, Haji Popinara, 34, told reporters that Jakup was fired recently from his job as an apprentice laborer of the New York Department of Environmental Protection, and is mentally disturbed. She said Jakup lives with his father and sister four blocks from the synagogue.

Ali said many Muslims from his community are also thanking him.

"They say this is a chance to portray us as we really are. This is the kind of people we, Pakistanis and Muslims, are. It’s important, especially after Sept. 11," he said.

"I just want to say that we, as Muslims, should always act like this — to try to change for better whatever is happening in the world. I just want to make to a positive change. We should think in a broader sense; forgive and be more considerate."

As for Ali’s boss’ reaction to the commotion over one of his employees, Ali said: "He’s very happy , because were getting a lot of business from this.

"Many people in the Jewish community are coming here for gas. Lots of Jewish people drive in from different states and come here just to thank me… and to get gas."

Ali said he was most touched by a couple that came by and said were Holocaust survivors. "They were very touched by what I did. They said when they came to the synagogue and smelled the gasoline fumes, they remembered when they were in Eastern Europe, and people were burning their synagogues. The smell triggered something in their memory. It was very touching."

"I just thank God that I was there to do it," said Ali.