The events of Sept. 11 triggered the worst backlash against South Asian Americans since the early 1900s, instilling fear and intimidation throughout the community, says a UC Davis anthropologist.

Sunaina Maira, associate professor of Asian American studies, is writing a book funded by the Russell Sage Foundation that documents how teens from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have dealt with the heightened government focus on Muslims since Sept. 11 and subsequent wars.

"There is no civil rights national safety net for South Asians, such as the African Americans have with the NAACP, and many have fallen through during this time," Maira says.

She spent the two years after Sept. 11 working in a Cambridge, Mass., public high school listening to Muslim youths, all recent immigrants, articulate their changing awareness of how they became a targeted minority.

"They talked to me about their notions of citizenship, how they have a complicated understanding of their U.S. national identity and about their fear of surveillance," Maira says. "Their situation helped them make the connection between their experiences of racial profiling with other youths of color, especially with African Americans."

Maira worked with a local South Asian community group in Boston to organize support services but found that few beyond those already politically active were willing to participate.

She believes that the Patriot Act has been effective in intimidating the South Asian community.

"They are very fearful of being arrested and deported," she adds. "No public community space, including mosques, is seen as safe."